Chronic Absenteeism

By Catherine Garrison, Ed. S.

May 16, 2024

I don't know about your experience, but in my small, impoverished, rural school district, chronic absenteeism is a problem for which teachers are held responsible. I would be very interested to know if your experience is similar to mine. I have three students who have missed my English class over twenty times this semester. Of course, I emailed my concerns to the principal and vice principal, but received no response. I realize that our district, like most, has configured the attendance system to automatically produces a letter to notify parents when students have missed two days and five days. The parents get a nice threatening letter that if the student misses too many days, the court system will be notified. However, that letter seems to have no effect because everyone knows how backed up the juvenile court system is. Ultimately, administrators hold teachers responsible for solving the problem.

Chronic Absenteeism Myths

If the class was engaging enough, students would want to come.

False. Students in rural and/or impoverished school districts miss for many reasons. My high school students are held out to care for sick younger siblings, parents, or grandparents. They miss because they work at night, oversleep, miss the bus, and have no other transportation. They miss because they would rather stay home and sleep or play video games, and there is no adult in the house to make them come to school. They miss because they don't like the class, tell parents/guardians they aren't doing anything in class, and parents check them out. They miss because they would rather get the credit the easy way in summer school when they can just do computer work for a couple of weeks. They miss because they are actually sick.

Students will come to class to avoid failing the class.

False: Administrators also say that the student should be failing the class if they have excessive absences. This implies that the negative consequence of failing a class is sufficient to motivate students. Well, in my school, that is completely untrue. For each day a student is absent, he/she gets one day to make up the work. Since the state no longer distinguishes between excused and unexcused absences, neither does the school. Students receive the opportunity to make up the work regardless. If a student misses Monday, receives makeup work on Tuesday, misses Wednesday and Thursday, then comes Friday, it is nearly impossible to keep track of or calculate when makeup work is due. I try to hold student work until all of a paper is turned in, but that is sometimes impossible. Students need feedback. We need to go over student errors to correct them before a test. That means, students with multiple absences can copy enough work from other students to make that 59.5% to get a passing grade.

Some students just don't care if they fail because making up a credit is very easy in Arkansas. There are no time or instructional requirements for making up credits in Arkansas as long as the student was enrolled in the class during the school year. Schools are so concerned about their "grade" that they bend over backwards to be sure students pass and graduate. I just had the counselor borrow one of my classroom computers so a senior could redo some assignments in a math class in order to get a passing grade and graduate TOMORROW!

Ironically, teachers get are harshly judges if they fail students. Teacher get pushback from students, parents, and administrators when they fail students. A teacher with too many Fs is labeled an ineffective instructor.

If the teacher stays in contact with the parent and encourages the student, he/she will come to class.

False: In spite of lacking time during the school day to do so, teachers still do try to reach out to parents, but so often, the parents just don't care. In impoverished districts such as mine, phone numbers are very often no longer accurate in the system. Reaching parents is very difficult. Other times, there is no way for teachers to solve the students problems at home.

The court system will make sure students attend.

This is almost laughable. The court system is hugely underfunded and backed up. According to the Arkansas Judiciary 2022 Statistics (the most recent available), 2,539 truancy cases were filed under Family in Need of Services (FINS). 2,002 were waiting to be started. 2,031 were still pending disposition at the end of 2022. The chances of a ninth grade student's truancy case being addressed before he becomes a junior are pretty slim.