Which APS schools were identified as having an attendance problem?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Turns out that if the leadership sends the message that showing up to school isn’t that important for learning, people listen.

What are you talking about? The super just sent out a message emphasizing the importance of attendance.

DP here - Where have you been the past few years? For me, it was the year where they basically told us school only has to be 4 days/week.

Also, the calendar is not designed by someone whose priority is having kids in school every day. Otherwise there wouldn’t be mid week holidays and teacher workdays all over the place.

+1,000,000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Discovery’s number is much higher than I would expect.

Probably vacations

That’s actually true in several of these schools. As an example, We have family friends at one of the schools who go skiing quite a bit and are getting letters at home about the repeated absences. In their case their children are doing fine in school.

Those are automatically generated whenever you kid hits whatever # of absences. No one really looks at those or cares. We got them all the time in elementary school. Straight to the trashcan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m curious if the elementary schools that have an early start time have higher absentee rates.

Doubt it. ATS I think is a 750am start and look at their numbers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Turns out that if the leadership sends the message that showing up to school isn’t that important for learning, people listen.

What are you talking about? The super just sent out a message emphasizing the importance of attendance.

DP here - Where have you been the past few years? For me, it was the year where they basically told us school only has to be 4 days/week.

Also, the calendar is not designed by someone whose priority is having kids in school every day. Otherwise there wouldn’t be mid week holidays and teacher workdays all over the place.

Aah I see you are still triggered by the response to the pandemic. And you don’t like equitable holidays either

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here are the most recent rates pulled off the Virginia website - the number is the percent of students with chronic absenteeism sorted from highest to lowest.

Arlington Community High 59.07
Wakefield High 27.63
Dr. Charles R. Drew Elementary 23.66
Randolph Elementary 21.76
Abingdon Elementary 21.12
Campbell Elementary 19.41
Washington-Liberty High 18.85
Claremont Immersion 18.83
Kenmore Middle 16.42
Barrett Elementary 15.54
Barcroft Elementary 15.15
Yorktown High 14.65
Jefferson Middle 13.39
Carlin Springs Elementary 12.84
Oakridge Elementary 12.80
Innovation Elementary 12.67
Alice West Fleet Elementary 12.18
Hoffman-Boston Elementary 10.70
Gunston Middle 10.43
Long Branch Elementary 10.31
Discovery Elementary 9.94
Glebe Elementary 7.46
Swanson Middle 6.18
Dorothy Hamm Middle 6.01
Montessori Public School of Arlington 5.01
Williamsburg Middle 4.48
Taylor Elementary 4.02
Jamestown Elementary 3.65
Ashlawn Elementary 3.02
Escuela Key Elementary 2.93
Arlington Science Focus School 2.51
Cardinal Elementary 2.14
Tuckahoe Elementary 1.86
Arlington Traditional 1.77
Nottingham Elementary 0.52

Thx for pulling-are these just based on unexcused absences or all absences?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here are the most recent rates pulled off the Virginia website - the number is the percent of students with chronic absenteeism sorted from highest to lowest.

Arlington Community High 59.07
Wakefield High 27.63
Dr. Charles R. Drew Elementary 23.66
Randolph Elementary 21.76
Abingdon Elementary 21.12
Campbell Elementary 19.41
Washington-Liberty High 18.85
Claremont Immersion 18.83
Kenmore Middle 16.42
Barrett Elementary 15.54
Barcroft Elementary 15.15
Yorktown High 14.65
Jefferson Middle 13.39
Carlin Springs Elementary 12.84
Oakridge Elementary 12.80
Innovation Elementary 12.67
Alice West Fleet Elementary 12.18
Hoffman-Boston Elementary 10.70
Gunston Middle 10.43
Long Branch Elementary 10.31
Discovery Elementary 9.94
Glebe Elementary 7.46
Swanson Middle 6.18
Dorothy Hamm Middle 6.01
Montessori Public School of Arlington 5.01
Williamsburg Middle 4.48
Taylor Elementary 4.02
Jamestown Elementary 3.65
Ashlawn Elementary 3.02
Escuela Key Elementary 2.93
Arlington Science Focus School 2.51
Cardinal Elementary 2.14
Tuckahoe Elementary 1.86
Arlington Traditional 1.77
Nottingham Elementary 0.52

Thx for pulling-are these just based on unexcused absences or all absences?

This is chronic absentee rates— meaning 10% of the school year (18 days). So almost a third of Wakefield misses 10% of days at least.
I know people point to vacations, but even if you’re taking a whole week for a ski trip or adding a week on to the holiday break to visit family abroad or something, IMHO it’s hard to get to 18 days of vacation related absences. I certainly don’t know any families that do that.

[Anonymous]

Some teens work to help support their families, or take care of younger siblings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Turns out that if the leadership sends the message that showing up to school isn’t that important for learning, people listen.

What are you talking about? The super just sent out a message emphasizing the importance of attendance.

DP here - Where have you been the past few years? For me, it was the year where they basically told us school only has to be 4 days/week.

Also, the calendar is not designed by someone whose priority is having kids in school every day. Otherwise there wouldn’t be mid week holidays and teacher workdays all over the place.

Aah I see you are still triggered by the response to the pandemic. And you don’t like equitable holidays either

“It's become increasingly clear that chronic absenteeism—having more than doubled since the 2018-19 school year—is a growing concern that aligns with state and national trends.”

So yeah, something in the response to the pandemic has made people stop caring about school attendance. I think that’s pretty clear. Also, when you have days off midweek people are more likely to take an extra day or two and go on vacation.

Even if you agree with the 4 day virtual weeks we had in 20-21 and all of the religious holidays/teacher workdays you should recognize that these decisions have consequences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some teens work to help support their families, or take care of younger siblings.

That doesn't explain all the kids at Drew, Abingdon, Campbell, Randolph, Claremont.

Why is Claremont so much higher than Key? Why are some TI schools doing better than others?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some teens work to help support their families, or take care of younger siblings.

That doesn't explain all the kids at Drew, Abingdon, Campbell, Randolph, Claremont.

Why is Claremont so much higher than Key? Why are some TI schools doing better than others?

I used to work at one of the above and observed that some newer immigrants kept their kids at home in bad weather

[Anonymous]

Gee, what brand new disease came about in 2020 that could have possibly caused people's health to decline, thus causing MORE absences?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Turns out that if the leadership sends the message that showing up to school isn’t that important for learning, people listen.

What are you talking about? The super just sent out a message emphasizing the importance of attendance.

DP here - Where have you been the past few years? For me, it was the year where they basically told us school only has to be 4 days/week.

Also, the calendar is not designed by someone whose priority is having kids in school every day. Otherwise there wouldn’t be mid week holidays and teacher workdays all over the place.

Aah I see you are still triggered by the response to the pandemic. And you don’t like equitable holidays either

“It's become increasingly clear that chronic absenteeism—having more than doubled since the 2018-19 school year—is a growing concern that aligns with state and national trends.”

So yeah, something in the response to the pandemic has made people stop caring about school attendance. I think that’s pretty clear. Also, when you have days off midweek people are more likely to take an extra day or two and go on vacation.

Even if you agree with the 4 day virtual weeks we had in 20-21 and all of the religious holidays/teacher workdays you should recognize that these decisions have consequences.

+1. Even if you think the pandemic response was correct or unavoidable, the current trend in school attendance is clearly a result of that response (& parents getting to see what actually happens during a school day at the elementary level— lots of wasted/filler time).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some teens work to help support their families, or take care of younger siblings.

And the middle and elementary absenteeism rates are the younger siblings the teens are home taking care of?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Gee, what brand new disease came about in 2020 that could have possibly caused people's health to decline, thus causing MORE absences?

You have info/data to back up your implied claim that the chronic absenteeism is due to illness? That so many young kids are so sick so often that they reach "chronic" absentee rates?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some teens work to help support their families, or take care of younger siblings.

And the middle and elementary absenteeism rates are the younger siblings the teens are home taking care of?

I'm a middle school teacher and some of my students stay home when their younger siblings are sick because the parents have to work. I could believe it happens with 6th graders too.