Absenteeism-reduction measures at Dranesville ES feel like misplaced student pressure

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A kid is considered chronically absent if they miss 15 days of school— excused and unexcused absences count towards the 15 days. The percentage of chronically absent students plays into school accreditation. That’s the real reason why FCPS cares.

It also reduces learning and can lead to social promotion of children who cannot read.

FCPS cares about educating children, unlike cynical posters who don't care about 20% absenteeism at a school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I looked up the article. You apparently neglected to mention that their absenteeism rate went from 20% to 6%?

No need to look it up. The link was posted in the OP. And the issue isn't about effectiveness, but bringing young classmates into the process of pressuring children to attend school being a bad idea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I looked up the article. You apparently neglected to mention that their absenteeism rate went from 20% to 6%?

No need to look it up. The link was posted in the OP. And the issue isn't about effectiveness, but bringing young classmates into the process of pressuring children to attend school being a bad idea.

Well, I guess it depends on whether or not you view chronic absenteeism as an issue. I do, and support efforts to reduce it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A kid is considered chronically absent if they miss 15 days of school— excused and unexcused absences count towards the 15 days. The percentage of chronically absent students plays into school accreditation. That’s the real reason why FCPS cares.

It also reduces learning and can lead to social promotion of children who cannot read.

FCPS cares about educating children, unlike cynical posters who don't care about 20% absenteeism at a school.

Do you have experience with a student who has been chronically absent?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A kid is considered chronically absent if they miss 15 days of school— excused and unexcused absences count towards the 15 days. The percentage of chronically absent students plays into school accreditation. That’s the real reason why FCPS cares.

It also reduces learning and can lead to social promotion of children who cannot read.

FCPS cares about educating children, unlike cynical posters who don't care about 20% absenteeism at a school.

Do you have experience with a student who has been chronically absent?

I am a teacher at a Title 1 school with chronic absenteeism issues, yes.

[Anonymous]

First of all, how do they know those measures are what caused the improved attendance?

It seems like applied peer pressure--school staff using children to get other children to attend school so they can get rewards. If the absences are due to chronic illnesses (physical or mental), why publicly shame those kids as if they are letting down the whole class? Social pressure is a disguised bullying tactic used by the school administration on parents and kids. These families are already struggling and I can see how this might make some kids want to go to school even less. Also hugging, high fives, and hand shakes spread more germs (especially if sick kids are pressured to show up) and some kids don't like being touched.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A kid is considered chronically absent if they miss 15 days of school— excused and unexcused absences count towards the 15 days. The percentage of chronically absent students plays into school accreditation. That’s the real reason why FCPS cares.

It's 18 days or 10% of the school year. That's only two days per month.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A kid is considered chronically absent if they miss 15 days of school— excused and unexcused absences count towards the 15 days. The percentage of chronically absent students plays into school accreditation. That’s the real reason why FCPS cares.

It's 18 days or 10% of the school year. That's only two days per month.

Only?!

[Anonymous]

I’m in a similar school and am very upset about it. It resulted in vomiting kids coming to school when they were pressured to come. My kids got sick over and over. And then we missed even more school. After 10 days the principal made us meet with him. Missing just 2 days a month gets you to 18 days absent.

The principal straight up told me to send my kids to school when they were sick and I could pick them up at 10am after count is over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A kid is considered chronically absent if they miss 15 days of school— excused and unexcused absences count towards the 15 days. The percentage of chronically absent students plays into school accreditation. That’s the real reason why FCPS cares.

It's 18 days or 10% of the school year. That's only two days per month.

Only?!

In my case it was a full week of diarrhea, vomiting and malaise. So that’s 5 days and that happened twice. Then a couple other days including strep throat and pink eye.

Maybe they need to be disinfecting the schools? My daycare kids aren’t sick as much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m in a similar school and am very upset about it. It resulted in vomiting kids coming to school when they were pressured to come. My kids got sick over and over. And then we missed even more school. After 10 days the principal made us meet with him. Missing just 2 days a month gets you to 18 days absent.

The principal straight up told me to send my kids to school when they were sick and I could pick them up at 10am after count is over.

That’s what they tell you for a solution. If they come in, get “counted” as attendance, attend a minimum amount of hours, then they can leave and not be counted as absent. Yay! What a solution! Well, it’s a great solution for the schools because it doesn’t require them to actually do anything about kids coming to school sick, kids who have school anxiety due to bullying, and all the kids who miss 2 weeks to go back to their home countries every winter.

[Anonymous]

It's part of the VDOE's School Climate report/school's report card, so I imagine there is some amount of pressure on some schools to boost their attendance numbers. They don't want to be known as "failing" or "off track".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m in a similar school and am very upset about it. It resulted in vomiting kids coming to school when they were pressured to come. My kids got sick over and over. And then we missed even more school. After 10 days the principal made us meet with him. Missing just 2 days a month gets you to 18 days absent.

The principal straight up told me to send my kids to school when they were sick and I could pick them up at 10am after count is over.

That's absurd (and dishonest) that they want sick kids to show up to be counted. That's faking attendance.

[Anonymous]

I can see how if you are from a foreign country, and it costs a lot to travel overseas, you'd want to get your money's worth and go for like a month so that your kids can be immersed in the culture and language, and spend time with relatives they rarely get to see. That seems reasonable and like it would also be educational and contribute to social-emotional learning!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can see how if you are from a foreign country, and it costs a lot to travel overseas, you'd want to get your money's worth and go for like a month so that your kids can be immersed in the culture and language, and spend time with relatives they rarely get to see. That seems reasonable and like it would also be educational and contribute to social-emotional learning!

I grew up in multicultural neighborhoods. No one was pulling their kids from school to travel for a month to the motherland. Those trips were important to the families, but they emphasized education more so. Trips were taken every few years during the summer, regardless of weather or travel deals.