Reply to Richard Montgomery High School teacher complains about chronic absenteeism

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I was curious because when looking up the chronic absence rates for Fairfax County it said it went up to the high teens and maybe low 20s but the 2023-2024 number was 12.8 percent.

So found articles like this one in what Fairfax County is doing to address chronic absenteeism:

https://wtop.com/fairfax-county/2023/11/how-fairfax-co-is-responding-to-a-rise-in-student-absenteeism/

https://era.cehd.gmu.edu/resources/chronic-absenteeism

Note that neither of the links above mentioned pushing back bell times.  And a lot of it is increasing family and student engagement.

Although Fairfax does have later start times than MCPS, so can't say that later bell times are not a factor.[/quote]

I believe Fairfax used to have earlier HS start times and then switched over to an 8.30 am start time like many other states[/quote]

Most of the high schools I looked up in Fairfax had a 8:10 bell time:

https://langleyhs.fcps.edu/about/bell-schedule

Their two alternative schools had a 8:00 bell time.[/quote]

And I guess the question for me is if that additional 25 minutes that Fairfax has really makes a difference, where most of their chronic absence percentages are at most 22 percent.  Whereas MCPS has many schools with chronic absence percentages in the 30 or 40 percent range.

It might be interesting if MCPS does a pilot program at some schools to see if it has any effect.  Doing a pilot program might be problematic where the schools won't be synced with the times at other schools.  So there might be some issues with school after school activity scheduling with multiple schools.

But I'd like to see it's actually worthwhile before than apply it to all schools affecting everyone's schedule.

I would guess it doesn't.

Again look at the kind of things Fairfax county was thinking of to improve their rates, which is mostly trying to get kids to school and increasing family and student engagement:
https://wtop.com/fairfax-county/2023/11/how-fairfax-co-is-responding-to-a-rise-in-student-absenteeism/

Compare this to the angle that MCPS is taking:
https://wtop.com/montgomery-county/2023/08/how-montgomery-co-public-schools-plans-to-reverse-a-trend-of-chronic-absenteeism/

Where they're focusing on inclusivity.  ie kids feel like they don't fit in at the school and don't want to go.

I'm not saying that it's totally invalid.  But there's more to a school system then ensuring DEI. (the I stands for inclusion)[/quote]

I don’t think a pilot program is needed. Most states have switched over to later HS start times. Early HS start times are not considered best practice these days. There must be a ton of data out there. Are other states happy with the switch? I’m sure some educational researchers must have looked at it. MCPS can probably do some digging and find out how it’s going given that we are late to the party. There are other patterns besides truancy to look at. Mental health is a big one[/quote]

Well if Fairfax county at one point had start times at 8:30 they changed it back.  Similar to how Howard County tried it and found out it just doesn't seem to work.

And early start times is a separate issue from chronic absenteeism.

Where you can find instances of schools that start earlier and have better attendance rates than MCPS.  (Frederick County)  And if you want to say something like, we'll it's not as big as MCPS or different demographics.  Then look at Fairfax County.  Where I don't think the 25 minute difference would account for that big of a difference in the chronic absence rates.

The difference is how the school systems handle and enforce the issues and hold the students and families accountable.

If you want to push for later start times for the better well being of students, that's a different issue and thread.

But using it to address the chronic absenteeism is continuing to give excuses. "Oh it's the demographics"  "The lower income families have to work all of the time" "We have larger school system"  "Start times are too early"

And we can point to other local school systems who perform better than MCPS and it's just more excuses.

If you can point to specific examples where it's proven that later start times improved attendance and chronic absence rates, I'd be more onboard with it.

But like I said, just like with the declining proficiency rates at MCPS, I see the issues with chronic absences and attendance rates with issues in how MCPS does things and they're not doing anything to improve it.[/quote]

Regardless of the start time, the students will still be absent.  You need to address the reasons why, not assume its a start time.[/quote]

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