Chronic Absenteeism Was 23% in 2022

[Anonymous]

Interesting. My son's 2nd qtr report card had notes blaming his lower than usual grades on his "excess absences". At the time, I didn't really think about it, other than, yes, he has been sick 2x this quarter. Then, late in the 3rd qtr, we received a notice that our son was nearing the 10% allowed absences this year. That email really made me sit back and ponder what was going on. He'd been sick 4x this year, and each time with a lingering cough. No fever, just a really gross sounding cough. In prior years we'd have likely sent him back to school, armed with cough drops, after a 2-3 day absence. Since covid though, 3x they were 5 day absences (one lasting over the weekend, even). Either his immune system is weakened, or more likely we are more sensitive to sending him to school "sick".

I will admit, in prior years we were more diligent about making up missed homework, but his 7th grade year has so much work as it is, my last priority is making up work - which resulted in a few zeros.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also, students can’t drop out until age 18. So some students show up when the weather is nice and may just wander around the school. We saw this happen a lot the first after the pandemic.

Definitely this is part of the issue that the state now makes the schools try and figure out. Increasing the age to 18 to stay in school so you have kids who don’t want to be there and apparently nothing to lose.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Interesting. My son's 2nd qtr report card had notes blaming his lower than usual grades on his "excess absences". At the time, I didn't really think about it, other than, yes, he has been sick 2x this quarter. Then, late in the 3rd qtr, we received a notice that our son was nearing the 10% allowed absences this year. That email really made me sit back and ponder what was going on. He'd been sick 4x this year, and each time with a lingering cough. No fever, just a really gross sounding cough. In prior years we'd have likely sent him back to school, armed with cough drops, after a 2-3 day absence. Since covid though, 3x they were 5 day absences (one lasting over the weekend, even). Either his immune system is weakened, or more likely we are more sensitive to sending him to school "sick".

I will admit, in prior years we were more diligent about making up missed homework, but his 7th grade year has so much work as it is, my last priority is making up work - which resulted in a few zeros.

This is why the 50% rule was so nice!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Interesting. My son's 2nd qtr report card had notes blaming his lower than usual grades on his "excess absences". At the time, I didn't really think about it, other than, yes, he has been sick 2x this quarter. Then, late in the 3rd qtr, we received a notice that our son was nearing the 10% allowed absences this year. That email really made me sit back and ponder what was going on. He'd been sick 4x this year, and each time with a lingering cough. No fever, just a really gross sounding cough. In prior years we'd have likely sent him back to school, armed with cough drops, after a 2-3 day absence. Since covid though, 3x they were 5 day absences (one lasting over the weekend, even). Either his immune system is weakened, or more likely we are more sensitive to sending him to school "sick".

I will admit, in prior years we were more diligent about making up missed homework, but his 7th grade year has so much work as it is, my last priority is making up work - which resulted in a few zeros.

Was he at home so sick that he couldn’t have asked a friend to send notes, or seen if anything was posted from the class on Canvas? Could he have reached out to the teacher letting them know what was going on and asked if there was anything he could do while at home sick and not trying to expose others?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The schools that were remote longer have higher absentee rates now. Kids and parents came to see going to school as optional.

A deep dive by the NYT published last week showed that there was no relationship between how long schools were remote and current absenteeism rates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Chronic absenteeism soared after Covid.

The Maryland average went from 20% in 2018 to 31% in 2022.
Montgomery Country went from 17% in 2018 to 23% in 2022.

For comparison:

The Virginia average went from 11% in 2018 to 20% in 2022.
Fairfax Country went from 9% in 2018 to 15% in 2022.

MCPS announced with great fanfare a campaign to address absenteeism at the beginning of the school year. Unfortunately, it unravelled quickly. I wish the school district would not treat something as important as this like a pr campaign, and instead roll out steady best practices with an eye toward a longitudinal effort, which is the only way something like this can successfully turnaround absenteeism.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Chronic absenteeism soared after Covid.

The Maryland average went from 20% in 2018 to 31% in 2022.
Montgomery Country went from 17% in 2018 to 23% in 2022.

For comparison:

The Virginia average went from 11% in 2018 to 20% in 2022.
Fairfax Country went from 9% in 2018 to 15% in 2022.

MCPS announced with great fanfare a campaign to address absenteeism at the beginning of the school year. Unfortunately, it unravelled quickly. I wish the school district would not treat something as important as this like a pr campaign, and instead roll out steady best practices with an eye toward a longitudinal effort, which is the only way something like this can successfully turnaround absenteeism.

How did it unravel quickly?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Chronic absenteeism soared after Covid.

The Maryland average went from 20% in 2018 to 31% in 2022.
Montgomery Country went from 17% in 2018 to 23% in 2022.

For comparison:

The Virginia average went from 11% in 2018 to 20% in 2022.
Fairfax Country went from 9% in 2018 to 15% in 2022.

MCPS announced with great fanfare a campaign to address absenteeism at the beginning of the school year. Unfortunately, it unravelled quickly. I wish the school district would not treat something as important as this like a pr campaign, and instead roll out steady best practices with an eye toward a longitudinal effort, which is the only way something like this can successfully turnaround absenteeism.

How did it unravel quickly?

It never really existed. The state forced counties to disenroll after 10 days. In my school teachers were told to report to counselors if a kid was absent three days in a row. Every time I sent an email as directed I would never get a response back. After a few weeks teachers stopped bothering since it was clear counselors and the attendance secretary couldn’t keep up with it on top of their other duties. It was clearly another central office idea from people who don’t spend significant time in schools day to day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Chronic absenteeism soared after Covid.

The Maryland average went from 20% in 2018 to 31% in 2022.
Montgomery Country went from 17% in 2018 to 23% in 2022.

For comparison:

The Virginia average went from 11% in 2018 to 20% in 2022.
Fairfax Country went from 9% in 2018 to 15% in 2022.

MCPS announced with great fanfare a campaign to address absenteeism at the beginning of the school year. Unfortunately, it unravelled quickly. I wish the school district would not treat something as important as this like a pr campaign, and instead roll out steady best practices with an eye toward a longitudinal effort, which is the only way something like this can successfully turnaround absenteeism.

How did it unravel quickly?

Leadership is easily distracted. Even with an issue that the superintendent felt passionately about, anti-racism, except for the anti-racism audit, some lame advisory lessons, and one ridiculously bad professional development session, nothing else occurred. Systemic change cannot take place without a steady commitment.

IMO, the issue that we need to take really seriously in order to raise graduation rates, grades, and test scores, without gimmicks dumbing down the system (e.g., 50% rule), is absenteeism.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Interestingly, both MCPS and FCPS went up precisely 6% after COVID.

They each went up 6 percentage points, not 6 percent. The percentage is much higher. For MCPS it is 35% (6/17=35%)

[Anonymous]

Elephant in the room - it's covid, guys. Kids are sick more often, and for longer. Study after study is showing us that covid impacts the immune system.

The sooner we acknowledge that, the sooner we can adjust to this "new normal" and hopefully do something about it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interestingly, both MCPS and FCPS went up precisely 6% after COVID.

They each went up 6 percentage points, not 6 percent. The percentage is much higher. For MCPS it is 35% (6/17=35%)

+1

and people ask why do i need algebra, I never use it in my job...and yet they think there using math to make a point, like...see nothing different about MCPS sigh

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interestingly, both MCPS and FCPS went up precisely 6% after COVID.

They each went up 6 percentage points, not 6 percent. The percentage is much higher. For MCPS it is 35% (6/17=35%)

+1

and people ask why do i need algebra, I never use it in my job...and yet they think there using math to make a point, like...see nothing different about MCPS sigh

OP: they're...sorry, i was a mathlete not a spelling bee scholar lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Elephant in the room - it's covid, guys. Kids are sick more often, and for longer. Study after study is showing us that covid impacts the immune system.

The sooner we acknowledge that, the sooner we can adjust to this "new normal" and hopefully do something about it

PP where do you live and what is your experience with this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interestingly, both MCPS and FCPS went up precisely 6% after COVID.

They each went up 6 percentage points, not 6 percent. The percentage is much higher. For MCPS it is 35% (6/17=35%)

Yes, we know MCPS and FCPS went up the exact same amount post COVID.