La Plata County students are accustomed to excelling – in academics, the arts and athletics, which is why it is so concerning to learn that the absentee rate among county youths is so high (Herald, July 3) and the reasons so complex. Chronic absenteeism – students who missed at least three weeks of school – is a national problem that transcends geography, sex, race and school level. Our youths are not immune.
According to the U.S. Department of Education, the national chronic absenteeism rate during the 2013-14 school year was 13 percent, Colorado stood at 16.3 percent and La Plata County was 24.2 percent. In Durango School District 9-R, while Park Elementary experienced 14 percent absenteeism, Escalante Middle and Durango High School each saw 29 percent absenteeism. Students can excel in certain areas and absenteeism can still matter, especially for early learners. Chronic absenteeism may prevent younger children from reaching early learning milestones; irregular attendance can predict better than test scores whether a student will drop out before graduation; and frequent school absences can influence adulthood.
The three school districts in La Plata County all have chronic rates of absenteeism, with Durango at 20.8 percent, Bayfield 29.4 percent and Ignacio at 37.2 percent. It is good to know that each district recognizes the problem and is taking collective and independent approaches to address it by working closely with students, families, schools and communities. They must also set goals and expectations against which they can measure progress.
All three districts are working to maintain consistency from district to district on attendance and absenteeism policies. Ignacio administrators have initiated home visits to families. Since 2011, District 9-R has worked with community partners including La Plata Youth Services and the La Plata County Student Multidisciplinary Assessment Review Team on the delivery of the Community in Schools Partnership program, and with Southern Ute Community Action Programs AmeriCorps staff on delivery of their Check & Connect program.
Check & Connect is a model of sustained intervention for promoting students’ engagement with school and learning that is integral to the Community in Schools Partnership program, created as a community-based effort to engage existing organizations to address gaps and inequalities in services.
During the 2015-16 school year, Check & Connect mentors, in collaboration with school administrators, counselors and social workers, served as a bridge into six District 9-R schools to provide services to 145 students. These efforts have demonstrated results around improved attendance, grades and test scores, but what are the district’s goals and when will they know if they are meeting success?
To address absenteeism, District 9-R has relied considerably on community partners and supported them financially, but in the past few years, its staff has spent more time engaging parents to identify and remove barriers and work to increase their child’s school attendance. These efforts will continue to grow during the 2016-17 school year because local AmeriCorps efforts did not receive AmeriCorps funding to continue the Check & Connect program.
Instead, Miller and Escalante Middle Schools will be working with their own staffing structures to try to meet student needs, and Durango High School’s Academic Advising Team will be working to figure out how it can assume more of that direct connection formerly provided by Check & Connect.
Let’s just hope their outreach is enough.
