Reply to Chronic absenteeism and truancy in DC

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]1. Taking accurate attendance is much more difficult than average people know. There are so many mistakes that if one really knew how bad it was, this report would be thrown out the window.

2. Attendance "counselors" are the most underpaid, under-trained, overly disrespected people in the building. They are undervalued and I guarantee if you walk into any building that person has more than one job.

3. The gig requires chasing the constantly moving 🎯 target of tracking down teacher, substitute teacher, and parent data entry errors.

4. It never ever reflects the number of kids actually in the building, as they are tasked to paper chase while also answering the phone, putting band-aids on bleeding kids, being yelled at and spoken to rudely by parents of all walks of life.... and sometimes building admins....

5. These citywide truancy dog whistle reports are red herrings; they never talk about the antiquated contracted attendance systems. There are over 45 attendance codes which is ridiculous.

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While DD had a couple of absences from individual classes incorrectly, her attendance was overall accurate. I'm sure there are outliers but I absolutely believe that the numbers are atrocious.[/quote]

I'll give a few examples:

Example 1: Parent of a DCPS third grader informs average neighborhood school that their kid is attending a private school. Average school doesn't have an waitlist and also needs a withdrawal form completed. Private school parent doesn't care nor complete the form, nor does the private school request records for the kid (they don't have to) Underpaid staffer needs paperwork to pull a student from the roster. School marks kid absent until the paperwork comes in.

Example 2: High school aged kid gets arrested and sentenced to DYRS or DC Jail or house arrest for 30 days a hearing is held. School marks the kid absent unexcused indefinitely

Example 3: Parent of younger student is hospitalized or incarcerated. Family sends kid to temporarily live out of state. Technically DCPS doesn't remove a kid if the parent is incarcerated, until a new placement is made.

Example 4: Lice outbreak at school. Kid sent home for lice exposure, parent has to wait two days until payday to buy lice remediation supplies, lice gets worse. Kid has some excused absences but has several unexcused as the infestation won't break. School offers learning plan, but forgets to tell attendance monitor.

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