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RCSB Adds To Attendance Policy
The Rockbridge County School Board last week approved changes to its attendance policy as it attempts to address the problem of chronic absenteeism among students.
The changes, outlined in a new regulation, clarify how administrators will execute the attendance policy, creating new avenues of communication between schools and families.
The new regulation is designed to be specific about how schools will approach chronic absenteeism, which has remained an issue since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Data shows that 31% of Rockbridge County High School students were chronically absent last year, which is almost three times higher than pre-pandemic absenteeism levels.
The county’s elementary and middle schools are faring better than RCHS. Central Elementary’s chronic absenteeism rate is 18%. Mountain View Elementary and Natural Bridge Elementary are both hovering under 15%, while Fairfield Elementary’s rate is just 7%. Just over 15% of Maury River Middle School students are chronically absent.
Chronic absenteeism is defined by the Virginia Department of Education as “missing 10 percent or more of the academic year for any reason, including excused absences, unexcused absences, and suspensions.” With roughly 180 days in the school year, this means that any student with 18 or more absences is considered chronically absent.
At last Tuesday’s School Board meeting, RCHS Assistant Principal Shaun Sparks gave a presentation highlighting a new emphasis on the partnership between schools and families.
This emphasis, he said, is part of an overall shift away from the concept of “truancy,” which only counts unexcused absences and emphasizes compliance, toward one of “chronic absence,” which counts all absences, including excused absences, emphasizes academic impact, and uses community-based, positive strategies.
The new regulation aims to positively address school absence before it becomes a chronic problem. According to Attendance Works, a nonprofit organization aimed at reducing chronic school absence, “Absenteeism in the first month of school can predict poor attendance throughout the school year. Half the students who miss two to four days in the beginning of the year go on to miss nearly a month of school.”
Under the revised attendance policy for Rockbridge County schools, once a student has accumulated 10 full school days of absence in a year, a parent or guardian must provide documentation from a licensed medical professional for any further absences. If a student accumulates 17 absences in a year-long course, or nine absences in a semester course, they may be denied credit. It is this result that the county’s public schools are hoping to avoid in laying out its specific guidelines.
“The state has always had a certain number of student absences that would trigger communication home,” explained Superintendent Phillip Thompson last week in an email to The News-Gazette, “However, we have put some more specific language in how we would like to work with parents and families to ensure their students are successful, should a student need to miss school.”
Some of the attendance policy’s new avenues for preventing chronic absenteeism include the appointment of an attendance clerk and the implementation of a Student Support Team (SST), which will meet with families once absence thresholds have been reached. The SST will be made up of, but not limited to, a school counselor, teacher, administrator and, in the case of RCHS, an attendance clerk.
An attendance clerk has been hired for the high school, since that is the school in the area with the largest concerns over chronic absenteeism. The new attendance clerk, Bridget Ramsey, will start making contact with students and families after three days of school have been missed.
An SST meeting, available at all schools, will occur once a student has missed 10 days of a full-year course or four days of a semester course. These meetings are meant to determine what kind of intervention may be necessary to ensure attendance, with interventions being specific to each individual student.
Thompson is confident the approach will help. “By and large, I do believe that most parents are in agreement that good school attendance is important for a student to be successful,” he said in an email to The News-Gazette. “This, coupled with the regulation’s focus on RCPS working with families to ensure student success, I believe are why we have received very little negative feedback.”
