Daily School Attendance Charmaine Young-Waddy- Student Services Specialist Sue DelaCruz- Supervising Pupil Personnel Worker

Why should a community care? “Each year's class of dropouts will cost Maryland taxpayers $42 million every year.” Every additional Maryland high school dropout costs the state approximately $1,555 a year in lost revenue, with total lifetime costs (in present value) of $35,180.” Drop outs have worse health and greater health risks as adults than do their peers who graduate as well as more frequent, negative contact with law enforcement

Even ONE dropout is too many… But what does “ dropping out ” have to do with daily attendance?

Frequent absences from school can be devastating to a child’s future Nationally- Five to seven and a half MILLION children miss over 10% of the days in a school year

But Charles County Public Schools has a good “Average Daily Attendance” rate: % % % %

,505 students missed more than 20 days of school ,297 students missed more than 20 days of school ,590 students missed more than 20 days of school

Do you realize that is an ENTIRE MONTH OF SCHOOL? Even missing two or three days a month can add up to 20 or 30 days of missed instruction in a school year. It is not just missing ‘consecutive’ days that impacts achievement The ENTIRE class suffers when classmates miss instruction

Students who are chronically absent in preschool, kindergarten and first grade are much less likely to read on grade level by the third grade Students who cannot read on grade level by the end of third grade are FOUR times more likely than proficient readers to drop out of high school

By high school, irregular attendance is a better predictor of drop out than test scores. A study in Utah found that if a student is chronically absent (missing 18 or more days) for even ONE YEAR in grades 8 through 12 he/she is SEVEN times more likely to drop out of school than a student who has never been chronically absent

Chronic absenteeism affects students who benefit from school the most, especially students who are low-income, students of color, homeless children, students with disabilities, students who are highly mobile, and/or juvenile justice-involved youth.

Absenteeism is a direct link to failure School YearNumber of Retentions Number of Retentions with 20 or more days of absence Percentage of students who were retained AND had chronic absences % %

Our Goal is achievement BUT… Teachers cannot teach students who are not in their seats

What is Charles County doing about Chronic Absenteeism? 1.Hold students and their parents accountable for absenteeism  Attendance data from previous year gathered and analyzed  The parent(s)/Guardians of every child who missed 20 or more days during the school year has had a conference with the school and an attendance agreement/contract has been developed.  Childs attendance history reviewed to look for patterns  Needs assessed for other school services and/or community referrals 2. Educate our community on the dangers of allowing children to miss school- even if it is “only one or two days a month”

3. Recognize, acknowledge and reward daily student attendance  School wide events –Whole class competitions, PBIS  Recognition and incentives- PBIS, Check in/check out, etc.  Club and sports eligibility 4. Intervene early to create a culture that values, recognizes and rewards daily attendance  Connect with parents  Connect with students  Engage the community

How are we doing it? Three tiered intervention and support plans All Some Few

Our 5 th graders are modeling and promoting daily attendance at our Elementary Schools

Thanks to the artists at Jennifer and Diggs

What if the POSITIVES don’t work?  Referral to PPW – investigate, evaluate, re-write the plan  Referral to Student Support Teams, CHIPS or 504 Teams OR Community Resources (as appropriate)  Referral to Ms. Young-Waddy for a board level hearing  Referral to the Assistant State’s Attorney for a meeting and a court monitored attendance contract  If the contract with the State’s Attorney is violated, the parents are taken to court – (9 cases currently in the courts)

Where are we right now? As of October 16 th : 31 possible days of school attendance 330 students have already missed 7 or more days – 70 at the elementary level – 59 at the middle level – 211 at the high school level They have already missed 23% of this years instruction!

As of October 16 th students have been tardy to school 5 or more times already this year! 98 at the elementary level 73 at the middle level 401 at the high school level Students arriving late not only miss instruction themselves but disrupt the learning of others when they come in at the middle of a lesson

Charles County Ahead of the Nation! October 26, Received notice from the Attorney General (Loretta Lynch) the Secretary of Health and Human Services (Sylvia Burwell), The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (Juli`an Castro) and the Secretary of Education (Arne Duncan) that they have: Identified chronic absenteeism as a “National problem that seriously undermines our efforts to improve education and life outcomes among our youth” State and local agencies – told to take four action steps immediately Action Step One: Generate and act on absentee data DONE Action Step Two: Create and deploy positive messages and measures DONE Action Step Three: Focus Communities on addressing chronic absenteeism DOING Action Step Four: Ensure responsibility across sectors Doing

We began our “EVERY STUDENT EVERY DAY” campaign over two years ago! It is now in place in EVERY school at EVERY level THANK YOU for your continued support For more information on how you and/or your business can help- please call or or