20,000 kids missing from DCPS

[Anonymous]

I am not at all surprised. On a normal school year in MCPS, in the Title 1 school that my kid goes to, parents and kids do not finish the enrollment process or even basic information that needs to be filled. Front office, administrators and counselors are doing triage all the time. I am not surprised.

Is it a catastrophe? No. These kids will come back when school will open in person. In the meantime, they are concentrating on just surviving the pandemic and meeting their basic needs. Education is low on their priority right now. The parents also are poorly educated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One out every five kids in DC has never attended school this year.

This is unconscionable.

They are actually really clear in the article that some of those kids have attended school, and they haven't calculated how many. Kids are counted as an incomplete enrollment if they

1) Started the paperwork, but didn't finish, even if they attended school.

OR

2) Finished the paperwork but didn't attend school.

I teach in a DC charter, and the first couple days of school, there is always a list of kids who show up and still have outstanding paperwork. For the younger kids, where parents are dropping off and picking up, we stop them at that point and make them go to the office. Usually if you physically stop them in the a.m., then they bring what they need in the p.m.. For the older kids, we make them get their parents on the phone. Lots of parents will answer their kids' cell when they won't answer a call from school. Even with those strategies, as you can see from the article, last year there were about 10K kids who hadn't finished the process by this point. And this year, we're making due with less effective strategies.

In addition, gathering the paperwork may be harder for families. Maybe they didn't do their regular well check up and so they don't have the doctor's paperwork. Maybe they are having trouble figuring out how to upload documents.

And finally, there is definitely more mobility in the system now. More families who were planning to enroll their ECE kids decided to stay with daycare or a babysitter and enroll next year. More families have sent the kids to stay with Grandma so they have childcare, making the kids no longer eligible in DC. More families have chosen private or homeschooling.

Yes, this is all concerning. But it's not that 1/5 of the students didn't attend school. It's more nuanced than that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The cure is worse than the disease. Open the schools.

+1

[Anonymous]

My aunt works for a poor county in Maryland. 1/3 of elementary students received no instruction in the spring. This isn’t surprising and is a national emergency. People don’t care because it’s immigrants and POC.

[Anonymous]

This is a red flag the size of Oklahoma. We need to open the schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One out every five kids in DC has never attended school this year.

This is unconscionable.

What makes you jump to that conclusion?

DCPS record-keeping is crud. People have been getting notices that their kids are truant from schools they never registered to attend. I know lots of people who have withdrawn their kids from DCPS this year and DCPS still has them on the books, even with withdrawal papers filed.

Ha. Everything is fine! I’m sure their paperwork is around here somewhere! I’m sure the secretary just misplaced it!

You are part of the problem.

LOL, sure.

[Anonymous]

Montgomery County has lower enrollment as well. The solution to the disease is probably not to "open school". It is to have leadership in our country who will LEAD. We still do not have a national plan for reopening schools, businesses, etc. I agree that schools should be open, but instead of our nation planning for the Fall 2020 reopening back in the Spring, people spent time arguing over whether or not to wear a mask. So, the issue here is not to open schools. Anybody can do that. The issue is opening schools and keeping them open. Where is the plan for that? Schools not being open is a symptom of a larger problem that our nation faces.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Montgomery County has lower enrollment as well. The solution to the disease is probably not to "open school". It is to have leadership in our country who will LEAD. We still do not have a national plan for reopening schools, businesses, etc. I agree that schools should be open, but instead of our nation planning for the Fall 2020 reopening back in the Spring, people spent time arguing over whether or not to wear a mask. So, the issue here is not to open schools. Anybody can do that. The issue is opening schools and keeping them open. Where is the plan for that? Schools not being open is a symptom of a larger problem that our nation faces.

Hardly anyone in DC has coronavirus. This is all for nothing.

[Anonymous]

This is surely the tip of the iceberg. One-fifth of students not enrolled. How many thousands more are technically enrolled but completely ignoring distance learning?

[Anonymous]

Not surprised! Does anyone remember Relisha Rudd? Kids need to be back in school especially the kids that are most at risk.

[Anonymous]

I bet the situation is a lot more dire than the city is letting on

[Anonymous]

I know at least 5% of my child's grade is not returning. A combination of private school, move, home school.

These are the ones I know of - and I am not asking around. All of these students ended the school year planning on returning. They all could be in the "started paper work" but not active right now grouping.
(WOTP Elementary)

[Anonymous]

I bet the situation is a lot more dire than the city is letting on

1+. I'm not sure they're necessarily hiding something dire, but obviously it is in their interest to signal success, so I think we have to discount any figures and reports to take into this inherent bias. (Certainly not unique to DCPS...) It'll always be worse than the PR.

[Anonymous]

I suspect a lot of these kids are never coming back, even when schools reopen. Once they get in the habit of not attending school, that habit is going to be hard to break.

[Anonymous]

This is shameful. Let there be another Benita Jacks or Relisha Rudd case and there will be hell to pay.