Also, students can’t drop out until age 18. So some students show up when the weather is nice and may just wander around the school. We saw this happen a lot the first after the pandemic.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The schools that were remote longer have higher absentee rates now. Kids and parents came to see going to school as optional.

This is a parenting issue. Parents need to be held accountable.

what policies do you suggest?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The schools that were remote longer have higher absentee rates now. Kids and parents came to see going to school as optional.

This is a parenting issue. Parents need to be held accountable.

In Maryland thanks to court cases, schools can't hold parents accountable for student attendance anymore. The state does require a student to be disenrolled of they are absent for 10 school days in a row. But the parent can just reenroll again.

Anonymous wrote:The schools that were remote longer have higher absentee rates now. Kids and parents came to see going to school as optional.

This is a parenting issue. Parents need to be held accountable.

Percentage of what?

Education is far too important to be left to schools and teachers. Families must have education as their priority if they want to their kids to make something out of their lives, government can run only so many programs, only so much assistance can be offered. At the end of it, it will come down to the culture and environment at home.

Just an anecdote, I know a cab driver, his wife stocks shelves at Giant. One of their kids finished Computer Engineering from UMD and the other kid finished Economics degree from UMD, both are working in six figure jobs. Now, granted they have a good, peaceful environment at home and they tracked their kids grades every quarter but they struggled with work hours and money. It can be done but doing it must be your priority.

Not in MoCo but I am suspicious of absenteeism counts since our local school counts a kid who is late (even 5 minutes) as absent. I know because I get a call when my kid is late- for doctors appointments or just a late morning.
There was also a LOT of illness in my kids class. One kid we know got COVID, flu x2, strep, then a secondary infection that resolved and then rebounded. All in 4 months or so?
My own son was out for COVID for 6 days and that was before 80 days of school and he had been sick 2-3 days total earlier in the year.

Remember if a kid gets a C in the 1st quarter of a semester they basically pass automatically, since a C/E combo results in a D. Loads of non-college bound students take advantage of this.

It’s an enormous problem nationally, and tends to correlate with income. So the poor get further and further behind. And teachers can’t help them if they’re not there.

Anonymous wrote:From a practical perspective attendance is optional. Teachers can’t hold students accountable in any way unless they are skipping class while at school.

Seems like my kids' teachers are also absent around 20% or higher.

From a practical perspective attendance is optional. Teachers can’t hold students accountable in any way unless they are skipping class while at school.

Interestingly, both MCPS and FCPS went up precisely 6% after COVID.

The schools that were remote longer have higher absentee rates now. Kids and parents came to see going to school as optional.

Chronic absenteeism soared after Covid.

The Maryland average went from 20% in 2018 to 31% in 2022.
Montgomery Country went from 17% in 2018 to 23% in 2022.

For comparison:

The Virginia average went from 11% in 2018 to 20% in 2022.
Fairfax Country went from 9% in 2018 to 15% in 2022.