Reply to Chronic Absenteeism in APS

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I work at one of the schools mentioned and parents are not keeping their kids home due to illness. We have kids that should be home they are so sick with horrific coughs etc, but are sent anyway. [b]They are missing school due to long weekend trips and vacations. [/b]No one thinks twice about having their kid miss school for that reason. Not sure what the solution is because an unexcused absence doesn’t scare anyone into changing the behavior. [/quote]

At my N. Arlington elementary (which is lower on this list, but absenteeism is up), it's this.  People out for vacations like crazy, often leveraging the many partial days/holidays.  One parent I was talking to at pickup was floored that she'd gotten a letter from the school about their absenteeism - they're constantly on vacation!  [/quote]

I will be pulling my kids the Monday — Wednesday the week before Christmas. In any given year in ES, we pulled five days for a vacation in February. Now with one in MS, we haven’t but will for that week so we can visit both sides of the family. But if mine were still in ES I’d be much more likely to pull them. COVID showed us how little is done each week. [/quote]

[b]I also think the new calendar with a ton of holidays off doesn’t help.[/b] It sends the message that education isn’t always a priority. [/quote]
This makes sense. Parents like to take advantage of long weekends and it's easy to rationalize that missing one day is no big deal.
However, this seems a logical contributing factor to overall absenteeism. Chronic absenteeism would mean the same kid is taking an extended break on all those holidays.[/quote]

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