Berkeley Leader

It should go without saying, but students need to come to school.
There are certainly times when it is necessary to stay home, but parents are encouraged to remain vigilant when it comes to making sure their children head to school.

“Chronic absenteeism” applies to students who frequently miss multiple days of school – in such a way that it's ongoing. There are a variety of issues, ranging from health to feeling disengaged, as to why a student might not come to school. It is not a new problem, and something Berkeley County School District schools are trying to combat.

Three BCSD principals recently weighed in on why attendance is so important, particularly coming out of the pandemic, and they can also attest that missing school days can have a negative effect on a student in more ways than one.

 

Truancy [Policy JBD School Attendance, Compulsory Attendance Ages and School Absences]

There are 180 required school days in the state of South Carolina; students need to attend 170 days.

Battling chronic absenteeism is not uncommon from year to year, but perhaps it is now more prevalent because of how schools were affected by the pandemic.

In the 2020-2021 school year, BCSD teachers had to teach both virtually and in-person simultaneously. Parents had the option of sending their students to school for in-person learning or keeping them home for virtual instruction.

During that school year, lessons were taught synchronously and asynchronously. Students who were in quarantine and could not attend school could tune into their lessons from their Chromebooks.

A few principals have reported that there is an ongoing misconception from parents that their child can still utilize this method if the child cannot physically be at school. However, BCSD schools have now resumed “normal” classroom instruction. Tuning in virtually when one is absent from school is no longer an option.

There are two types of absences from school: excused and unexcused. Whether an absence is considered excused or not depends on why a child misses school. A child may typically have 10 excused absences from school each year. Those absences include, but are not limited to:

•    Illness (BCSD is aware that COVID, RSV, strep throat and the flu have gone around, and children should definitely remain at home if they are sick)

•    Death or serious illness of an immediate family member

•    Religious holidays

•    Attending necessary doctor’s appointments (remember to get doctors' notes)

•    Absences approved by the principal in advance for events (like sports or band trips)

A child is typically considered truant if the child has three unexcused absences in a row or five unexcused absences in one year.

Those absences include, but are not limited to:

•    Absences the parent does not know about

•    Absences the parent does know about but are not considered by the school as a good reason for missing school

•    Skipping school

Parents are responsible for their child’s attendance even if he/she skips without the parent’s knowledge.

Being chronically absent applies to any student in grades K-12 who missed 50 percent or more of the instructional day, for any reason, for 10 percent (or more) of the enrollment period. All types of absences contribute to chronic absenteeism, but “truancy” applies to unexcused absences. Excused absences and suspensions do not affect truancy.

A “habitual truant” is a child between 12 and 17 years old who fails to comply with their intervention plan and accumulates two or more additional unexcused absences. This child may need court intervention and an initial truancy petition may be filed.

A “chronic truant” child has already reached the level of a “habitual truant”, has been referred to Family Court and placed on an order to attend school, and continues to accumulate unexcused absences. Read more about truancy in South Carolina.

BCSD principals already know there are a multitude of reasons a student may not come to school, but coming out of the pandemic, they are actively working to create a culture at their school that gets students excited about being there.

 

Fundamental gains

Three principals on an elementary, middle and high school level recently weighed in on why students need to come to school.

Elementary School

A significant amount of fundamental skills are taught in elementary school beyond just reading and writing. Foxbank Elementary Principal Natalie Lockliear said that engagement is crucial to elementary-aged children.

“They need to be interacting and learning to cooperate and how to get along with others and how to share,” she said. “You learn that through experiences, and we want kids here so that, one, they can be part of those things, but also…students learn a lot through engagement. When they’re absent they miss those hands-on activities.”

Elementary students already lacked those opportunities during the initial COVID shutdown in 2020, so it is especially crucial now to make sure elementary students are experiencing those collaborative opportunities and getting to work together in groups.

“Real life is working with people, and real-life jobs mean working with other people,” Lockliear said.

Lockliear said she believes her school has created a precedent that students need to be in school, and parents have been receptive of it. The school offers resources to parents to help them if their schedule makes it hard to get their child to and from school (such as before/after school care); ongoing communication between the parents and the school is key to making sure the students avoid unlawful absences.

“Our attendance clerk does a really good job trying to get excuses from parents, and she works and stays on top of it,” she said. “We encourage kids to be here – we want to make the parents accountable for their absences and make sure that we get the documentation that we’re required to get."

“In the end, they’re the parent and they’re accountable for their child’s attendance,” Lockliear said.

 

Middle School

Middle school instruction is much more fast-paced than elementary school, so missing multiple days of class will set a child back and make it hard for them to get caught up with their work.

Since they have multiple classes in a day, students in middle and high school also need to visit every one of their teachers in order to catch up on missing work when they miss a day of school.

Philip Simmons Middle Principal Charla Groves said her teachers work hard to get students caught up on work when need be, but missing too many days of school can make it harder for students who might already be behind academically.

“When they fall further behind, it creates further gaps, so it’s a challenge,” Groves said. “As is the nature of any grade level, the skills you learn on Monday are going to be necessary for what you do on Tuesday. If you miss out on the instruction, even when you make it up with the teacher, you may not have the same level of understanding. It can affect your achievement in the future.”

Groves further stressed that virtual learning is no longer an option because teachers are no longer providing dual instruction.

“We are a brick and mortar school that is providing the service in-person,” Groves said.

Groves regularly puts out reminders to her Philip Simmons Middle families, telling them what they need to do if their child is absent (i.e.: let the school know, get a doctor’s note if need be, etc.). When students miss a certain number of days, schools are required to hold a pre-AIP (pre-attendance intervention plan), which is created by the school’s attendance clerk. Schools usually call and check on students if they have missed more than two consecutive days.

There might be deeper reasons why a student is not attending school – this is typically when a district social worker gets involved.

Groves said her school saw a lot of behavioral issues during the 2021-2022 school year; a lot of those issues BCSD’s social workers saw in general following the pandemic. Learning to communicate and work well with others is best learned in-person.

“At school, you’re interacting with all sorts of individuals – not just the people in your home or in your community that live right by you,” she said.

 

High School

High school attendance is crucial to make sure students graduate.

Based on state board regulations regarding student attendance, high school students are required to serve a certain amount of “seat time” in order to receive the Carnegie Unit for each class they take. Each unexcused absence requires one hour of seat time.

Cane Bay High Principal Tiffany Brown said if they miss beyond that number of days, they are in jeopardy of receiving an FA, which is a “failure due to attendance” – even if they had a passing grade – and subsequently would have to retake that class.

“We want them to be able to earn their credits and to not have to repeat courses, because that delays their graduation,” she said.

Seat time requirements are not anything new. However, there are students in high school who may be unfamiliar with the policy because it was implemented prior to COVID.

There are opportunities for Cane Bay High’s students to make up seat time by doing Saturday School via the Every School Day Counts program – or ESDC. This program is a plan for students who have earned a passing grade in a course, but are in danger of failing because they have not met minimum attendance requirements. This applies to students with four to six unexcused absences in a nine-week course, six through nine unexcused absences in a semester course, and 11 through 14 unexcused absences in a year-long course. ESDC is designed for students who have exceeded the number of allowed absences during a given quarter, semester or year. If students meet the established criteria for participation in ESDC activities, they will be required to attend to receive credit for the course.

Other BCSD high schools offer variations of seat time recovery; contact your child’s school to learn more.

Cane Bay High’s policy directly states in black and white: “Attendance is mandatory.”

Brown said absenteeism continues to be an issue this school year, but to combat it, she spoke to every grade level during the second week of school. One of the first things she talked about was how important it is for them to come to school. The school has shown students how they can check and see how many absences they have themselves, and it regularly keeps parents updated on how they can stay on top of absences.

The work load in high school makes it that much harder to get caught up when students miss their classes.

“Having the opportunity in real-time to ask questions, to see what is happening in the room and then to also to be able to interact with their peers, I think, is really important,” Brown said.

Being in school also helps staff better gauge how to support students.

“Sometimes our kids are emotionally struggling or they may have issues at home that we may not be aware of if they were not here,” Brown said.

 

More than academics

Groves said there are a number of reasons beyond academics why students need to be in school. For one, the country has seen a decrease in skills of conflict resolution following the onset of the pandemic. School is a place where students build social skills – and in middle school, these are skills that are going to set students up for success when they head to high school.

“School is not just a place of academics,” she said. “It’s where we learn how to be contributing members of society, we socialize with other people. It’s a great place to be. We want everyone to want to be here and we need them to play a part in our story.”

Philip Simmons Middle’s hashtag slogan this year is “BeTheOne." Students are being challenged to find ways to make a difference in someone’s day, in some way – and it helps if they come to school to do these things.

“Sometimes you don’t know that you made that difference for someone, but you have the opportunity to ‘be the one’ for someone,” she said.

Lockliear said she has a very enthusiastic staff that loves working with the students, and Foxbank Elementary finds it important that students see their teachers enjoy education and being at school.

“Our staff is a little extra and they jump out of the norm and do all kinds of silly things,” she said. “I really think that the staff is what makes it Foxbank.”

Brown said Cane Bay High wants students to take control not just of their learning, but of making sure they come to school.

“I want them to understand: they’re not always going to be here,” she said. “When you graduate, you’re going to be an adult and you’ve got to advocate for yourself. Let’s start practicing that now.”

 

Original source can be found here.