September is Attendance Awareness Month, a month designed to highlight the importance of consistent school attendance and the impact of chronic absenteeism on student success. Absenteeism, whether excused or unexcused, can create significant gaps in learning, making it difficult for students to keep up with their workloads and meet academic and social goals.
To better understand the district鈥檚 efforts in promoting regular attendance and supporting families, we sat down with Kim Bates, 澳门开奖网鈥檚 Coordinator of Family Outreach and Student Engagement. Here is what she had to say:
Tell us a bit about your work in the district. What are your primary responsibilities?
A: My role in the district is to support students and families in a variety of ways. I oversee all of our parent and family engagement including parent classes, parent center, community liaisons and interpretation and translation services. I also help support student engagement by focusing on attendance. This involves meeting with students and families when attendance becomes a concern, advising schools on available supports to help students improve their attendance, and collaborating with the OC District Attorney and community organizations to ensure we meet attendance requirements while providing full support to families. I also review district-wide attendance data and offer guidance to schools on how to boost attendance when needed.
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Why is regular school attendance so important, and what should parents know about the potential impacts of frequent absences?
A: Regular school attendance is the number one predictor of high school graduation. When students struggle to graduate, attendance is almost always the primary factor, with patterns of absenteeism often tracing back to elementary school. When students miss a significant amount of school (10% of the school year or more), they can start to struggle academically because they miss out on learning opportunities. They might also start to think that school is optional and miss out on developing relationships with their peers. Each of these factors compound as more school is missed.听
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After multiple years with this pattern, we have observed that students feel disconnected from the social aspects of school, are overwhelmed by gaps in their learning, and feel incapable of keeping up. They can also feel that school is not for them and is not important. This often leads to mental health challenges and academic difficulties, and ultimately results in students either dropping out, graduating high school without enough credits, or needing to find alternative schooling options that were not part of their original plan.
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How does absenteeism present itself in 澳门开奖网, and what trends have we observed?
A: Within 澳门开奖网, and across the state of California, absenteeism has tripled from our pre-pandemic rates. In 澳门开奖网 we have a few trends with absenteeism.听
- We are seeing a very large number of students missing an exorbitant amount of school for illness. While most students will need some sick days in a school year, quite often the amount of days students are missing is far more than necessary. We still have many families keeping students home when they feel the slightest symptom of illness or when they just feel a little tired. While during the pandemic this was something we asked of families, we have returned to our pre-pandemic expectations on student absences due to illness and we need parent support. We urge parents to remember that even excused absences can significantly impact students. It's important for parents to understand that many truancy cases stem from students being excessively excused from school.听
- We also see a great deal of students who are checked out early from school for outside programming through sports, the arts or other ventures. Schools are unable to excuse these kinds of absences and, again, regardless of whether they are excused or unexcused they ultimately have the same impact on student connectedness to their peers and their learning journey.听
- The third primary cause of absenteeism rates in 澳门开奖网 is extended vacations during the school year. While some travel is unavoidable, we are seeing more and more families missing 2-6 weeks of the school year to take trips. We encourage our families to plan their travel around school breaks and only miss school to travel when it is unavoidable.
What steps can parents and families take to help ensure regular attendance for their children?
A: Start regular attendance habits young! As parents, it can seem harmless to let your child skip school occasionally for a fun day at Disneyland or a special outing. However, we often see that these occasional absences can create a pattern, leading to more missed school days each year. If healthy attendance habits weren鈥檛 established early on, it鈥檚 never too late to make a change! Families can always start improving school attendance, no matter the age or grade of the student. As with most things, our kids look to us to model attendance for them. If we, as parents, believe it is important to attend school and make it a priority, our kids will typically follow suit.听
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We also encourage our parents to track school attendance. It can be surprising over a 10-month school year how much school our kids miss if we do not keep tabs on it. Students are considered chronically absent when they miss 10% of a school year or more. That鈥檚 just two days a month. Avoiding unnecessary absences allows the necessary absences to have less of an impact on our kids.
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How can the district and families work together to reduce absenteeism and support student success?
A: If your student is having trouble attending or is refusing to go to school, we encourage you to reach out to the school for support. Attendance issues can be complex, and there鈥檚 no one-size-fits-all solution, but we鈥檙e here to work with you. Open and honest communication about the challenges your family is facing helps us find the best ways to support your student. Families and schools can鈥檛 tackle this alone鈥攚e need to work together as a team. Life can be complicated, and while we may not be able to solve every issue, we can help find ways to reduce the impact on your student鈥檚 education. At the end of the day, our District goals for students may reflect the same as yours: we want them to be safe, happy, healthy and to pursue their dreams. By partnering together, we believe we can help every student reach those goals.
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澳门开奖网鈥檚 commitment to supporting students and families is evident through its multifaceted initiatives, including Family Outreach and Student Engagement. For more information on the supports and services available to all students and families, please visit the听Student Support Services webpage.