Chronic Absenteeism in APS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The kids are absent in the lower grades because their parents don’t make them go to school. They oversleep or it’s raining or it’s cold. These are reasons I’ve heard from PARENTS when we are able to get in touch with them. The social worker bends over backwards to call the parents to make sure they don’t oversleep (I’m not kidding). She gets coats and umbrellas for the kids even though most of them already have them.

The kids in the middle school are often absent because they are babysitting their younger siblings. Ridiculous. Mom can’t get the 5 yr old out of bed because he stayed up half the night on his tablet so she makes the middle school sibling stay home to babysit.

Yup. There are the reasons we here at our school. I think I mentioned earlier in this thread (or another one) that once it starts getting cold our absences increase because parents refuse to send their kid.

Why is that problem so much worse post-pandemic?

Good question. IF this is really the significant factor, perhaps because people's perspectives on life and what's most important have shifted? School is important but not as important as being safe at home with family and not pushing kids too hard? Or parents' jobs have changed and more babysitting is needed by older siblings? Or, some cultures that really don't like to send their kids outside when it's cold are acting on that fear more in an overly protective manner -- because of the level of sickness during COVID and subsequent fears?

or because they are ACTUALLY SICK more post Covid??? I really can't believe the gymnastics people are going through to try to make up reasons anything other than Covid has an impact on people's health. I don't keep my kids home because I am fearful of them getting sick. I keep them home when they are sick and it's definitely a thing that kids are getting sick a lot more after having Covid. It's happened to us, and pediatrician confirmed it.

That's you and your experience. And I'm sorry you and your children have to endure those impacts of COVID.
Still, those of us asking the questions here are doubting that is what has happened and is causing the excessive absenteeism of all the students who are chronically absent. Even the literature you posted does not indicate what portion of children have diminished immunity due to COVID. You are citing your one personal family experience as the cause of the whole issue for everyone. I, for one, believe there's more to it than that; and therefore, I'm posing questions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The kids are absent in the lower grades because their parents don’t make them go to school. They oversleep or it’s raining or it’s cold. These are reasons I’ve heard from PARENTS when we are able to get in touch with them. The social worker bends over backwards to call the parents to make sure they don’t oversleep (I’m not kidding). She gets coats and umbrellas for the kids even though most of them already have them.

The kids in the middle school are often absent because they are babysitting their younger siblings. Ridiculous. Mom can’t get the 5 yr old out of bed because he stayed up half the night on his tablet so she makes the middle school sibling stay home to babysit.

Yup. There are the reasons we here at our school. I think I mentioned earlier in this thread (or another one) that once it starts getting cold our absences increase because parents refuse to send their kid.

Why is that problem so much worse post-pandemic?

Good question. IF this is really the significant factor, perhaps because people's perspectives on life and what's most important have shifted? School is important but not as important as being safe at home with family and not pushing kids too hard? Or parents' jobs have changed and more babysitting is needed by older siblings? Or, some cultures that really don't like to send their kids outside when it's cold are acting on that fear more in an overly protective manner -- because of the level of sickness during COVID and subsequent fears?

or because they are ACTUALLY SICK more post Covid??? I really can't believe the gymnastics people are going through to try to make up reasons anything other than Covid has an impact on people's health. I don't keep my kids home because I am fearful of them getting sick. I keep them home when they are sick and it's definitely a thing that kids are getting sick a lot more after having Covid. It's happened to us, and pediatrician confirmed it.

That first year after taking off the masks is rough, no doubt about it. It’s like our immune systems forgot how to fight anything off. A muscle that atrophied from non-use. It was nice not getting sick for awhile but unless you want to mask forever, you’re going to have to build yourself back up the hard way.

Speaking from experience, it will get better.

[Anonymous]

Really, I think people are just out of the habit of having to get ready and get out of the house every single day. The grind wears you down and people are now more comfortable with working from home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Really, I think people are just out of the habit of having to get ready and get out of the house every single day. The grind wears you down and people are now more comfortable with working from home.

But kids have been back full time for 2 full years now. That’s more than enough time to get back into the habit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Really, I think people are just out of the habit of having to get ready and get out of the house every single day. The grind wears you down and people are now more comfortable with working from home.

But kids have been back full time for 2 full years now. That’s more than enough time to get back into the habit.

Many of these kids haven't been back in full time for 2 years because they are chronically absent. You don't build a habit unless you do it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The kids are absent in the lower grades because their parents don’t make them go to school. They oversleep or it’s raining or it’s cold. These are reasons I’ve heard from PARENTS when we are able to get in touch with them. The social worker bends over backwards to call the parents to make sure they don’t oversleep (I’m not kidding). She gets coats and umbrellas for the kids even though most of them already have them.

The kids in the middle school are often absent because they are babysitting their younger siblings. Ridiculous. Mom can’t get the 5 yr old out of bed because he stayed up half the night on his tablet so she makes the middle school sibling stay home to babysit.

Yup. There are the reasons we here at our school. I think I mentioned earlier in this thread (or another one) that once it starts getting cold our absences increase because parents refuse to send their kid.

Why is that problem so much worse post-pandemic?

Good question. IF this is really the significant factor, perhaps because people's perspectives on life and what's most important have shifted? School is important but not as important as being safe at home with family and not pushing kids too hard? Or parents' jobs have changed and more babysitting is needed by older siblings? Or, some cultures that really don't like to send their kids outside when it's cold are acting on that fear more in an overly protective manner -- because of the level of sickness during COVID and subsequent fears?

or because they are ACTUALLY SICK more post Covid??? I really can't believe the gymnastics people are going through to try to make up reasons anything other than Covid has an impact on people's health. I don't keep my kids home because I am fearful of them getting sick. I keep them home when they are sick and it's definitely a thing that kids are getting sick a lot more after having Covid. It's happened to us, and pediatrician confirmed it.

That's you and your experience. And I'm sorry you and your children have to endure those impacts of COVID.
Still, those of us asking the questions here are doubting that is what has happened and is causing the excessive absenteeism of all the students who are chronically absent. Even the literature you posted does not indicate what portion of children have diminished immunity due to COVID. You are citing your one personal family experience as the cause of the whole issue for everyone. I, for one, believe there's more to it than that; and therefore, I'm posing questions.

Oh sweetie, the denial is deep, deep, deep. It's not just us. It's a global phenomenon. That's why they are studying it. I'm not saying it's the only cause of absenteeism but it's certainly in the mix.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Really, I think people are just out of the habit of having to get ready and get out of the house every single day. The grind wears you down and people are now more comfortable with working from home.

But kids have been back full time for 2 full years now. That’s more than enough time to get back into the habit.

Many of these kids haven't been back in full time for 2 years because they are chronically absent. You don't build a habit unless you do it.

Im the PP. Fair point. I suspect this is something I just cannot understand.

[Anonymous]

FCPS superintendent Reid was just quoted saying she attributes some of the increase in chronic absenteeism to actual illness and coronavirus-related quarantines the last few years.

But no one wants to do anything to prevent illness from spreading in schools so here we are,

[Anonymous]

I think a lot of the chronic absenteeism is concentrated on the families that have more food and housing insecurity and generally less means. Our option elementary school is more diverse regarding these factors versus a neighborhood school and the principal continues to talk about attendance pretty much every time she talks about anything. At this point I've shared with others I wish she would move on and talk about something else because parents either get that attendance is important, or they don't and have heard other parents comment as much. Since it's an immersion school, a lot of the meetings have Spanish English translation, and they go ON AND ON about it when they are doing the Spanish translation. At one meeting they said it in English - attending school is important - and then in Spanish they gave several examples "if your kid tells you they are tired, they still need to come to school" which was a bit surprising for me that it needs to be said, but I guess not everyone has the same background that education is important, and schools were closed for a year and a half....

[Anonymous]

We actually got a letter from APS last year because my kid missed so much school. It was all due to illnesses (stomach bug that landed my kid in the hospital once, pneumonia once, strep twice and then random fevers and colds)

It was the first full school year without masks and prior to that my kid was not in public school yet. He wasn’t really exposed to germs until then (2020-2021 was his kindergarten year and that was all virtual, 2021-2022 was masked and if your kid was sick you had to have a negative Covid test to return to school)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think a lot of the chronic absenteeism is concentrated on the families that have more food and housing insecurity and generally less means. Our option elementary school is more diverse regarding these factors versus a neighborhood school and the principal continues to talk about attendance pretty much every time she talks about anything. At this point I've shared with others I wish she would move on and talk about something else because parents either get that attendance is important, or they don't and have heard other parents comment as much. Since it's an immersion school, a lot of the meetings have Spanish English translation, and they go ON AND ON about it when they are doing the Spanish translation. At one meeting they said it in English - attending school is important - and then in Spanish they gave several examples "if your kid tells you they are tired, they still need to come to school" which was a bit surprising for me that it needs to be said, but I guess not everyone has the same background that education is important, and schools were closed for a year and a half....

or the schools are clueless and just think that saying attendance is important will solve the problem when it clearly does not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think a lot of the chronic absenteeism is concentrated on the families that have more food and housing insecurity and generally less means. Our option elementary school is more diverse regarding these factors versus a neighborhood school and the principal continues to talk about attendance pretty much every time she talks about anything. At this point I've shared with others I wish she would move on and talk about something else because parents either get that attendance is important, or they don't and have heard other parents comment as much. Since it's an immersion school, a lot of the meetings have Spanish English translation, and they go ON AND ON about it when they are doing the Spanish translation. At one meeting they said it in English - attending school is important - and then in Spanish they gave several examples "if your kid tells you they are tired, they still need to come to school" which was a bit surprising for me that it needs to be said, but I guess not everyone has the same background that education is important, and schools were closed for a year and a half....

or the schools are clueless and just think that saying attendance is important will solve the problem when it clearly does not.

What else can the school really do?

[Anonymous]

It's cute when the school pretends to care whether your kid is there, or not...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's cute when the school pretends to care whether your kid is there, or not...

Are you saying they aren't doing enough to encourage attendance? What additional things would you suggest?

[Anonymous]

In addition to basically begging parents to send their kids every day and rewarding kids and classes with regular attendance, our counselors talk with kids and when they find reasons that the kids are out (tending to siblings in their parents’s stead, for example) they work with families to find other options. It’s another example of how schools are being called on to solve social ills without sufficient staff or resources.