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One of the biggest roadblocks to a good education is the student not showing up to school in the first place. Ohio County Schools is trying to cut down on the number of students who miss too much school.
At the last Ohio County Board of Education meeting, Ohio County Schools Attendance Director Raquel McLeod informed the board on the changes the district is making to its attendance policy to cut down on "chronic absenteeism," defined as missing more than 10% of the days in an average school year -- 18 days based on the West Virginia public school calendar.
A statistic McLeod offered at the meeting showed that a reinforcement of Ohio County's attendance policy was a smart move. She estimated that 15% of Ohio County students have already missed three to five days of the school year. Students returned to school this year on August 11. McLeod made that statement September 28. That's a lot of students missing a lot of school days in not a lot of time.
It's very simple: students who don't attend class regularly fall behind quickly. They're not in front of their teachers getting their new lessons. They're not asking their teachers about questions they're confused about. And in some cases, they're not able to take advantage of the breakfasts and lunches school provide that could be the sole meals they eat in a day.
And less time in school means lower scores on standardized tests. Students who could be thriving in a classroom environment don't get that chance if they're routinely absent.
They're might be valid reasons that students aren't in school, mainly medical ones. Students with chronic illnesses often find themselves in doctor's appointments out of town or sometimes out of state. The school district is more than happy to work with those families to ensure their children are getting the education they need.
But there are households where education isn't the priority is should be, and students miss school simply because they didn't hop on the bus. Those situations need reversed, and Ohio County Schools is taking a more hands-on approach.
McLeod said she'll make "meaningful contact" with families. The first will come after three unexcused absences and again after five. The district will document those contacts. When a student reaches 10 unexcused absences, a text will go to the student's family telling them to call McLeod for a discussion.
Ultimately, too many unexcused absences will lead the district to file a truancy case with the Ohio County Prosecutor's Office.
Getting the prosecutors involved? That might seem a bit much, but when you're trying to get kids back in school and the parents don't want to take an active role in making that happen, more drastic measures are necessary.
Any veteran school administrator will tell you that, if a student faces a consequence he or she can tolerate, bad behavior doesn't change. If that consequence is something the student can't tolerate, the behavior changes. The same can go for parents. If they don't want to help the school district and make sure their kids are in class, having to take time away from work to deal with a prosecutor should fix that quickly.
The key will be the documentation. If the school district wants to put teeth behind its attendance policy, it needs to have the records to back it up.
Students must be in school, at their desks and engaged with the class to have the best possible chance to learn. This attendance policy should help Ohio County Schools cut into those numbers of the chronically absent.