HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) – The Virginia Department of Education defines chronic absenteeism as missing 10% of the school year. Based on a 180-day school year, that’s about 18 days per year, or two to three days per month.

Across the state, school districts – such as Rockingham County Public Schools and Harrisonburg City Public Schools locally – are working to curb the problem, which is also one of the focuses of Governor Glenn Youngkin’s “ALL in VA” initiative, which will be launched in September 2023.

Rockingham County: “Education is the key to their future success”

Rebecca Tinnell, director of attendance, compliance and Title XI oversight for Rockingham County Public Schools, said current attendance rates compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic show that students are not in school as often “as we need them to be to be good learners.”

In the 2022-23 school year, 21% of the division’s students were classified as chronically absent, according to RCPS. In the 2023-24 school year, that number dropped to 12%.

“I think there have been a lot of difficult conversations with families just to say what an impact it can have when your child is not in school,” Tinnell said. “You miss hours of classes and then you have even more problems.”

Through conversations with families, school administrators and support staff, Tinnell said some common causes of chronic student absenteeism have come to light. A major factor is anxiety, Tinnell said, and RCPS offers mental health services to help students. She said keeping students home when they are too anxious to come to school only makes the problem worse, and suggests parents and guardians schedule a meeting with an administrator and guidance counselor to create a support plan for the student.

Chronic school absenteeism remains a priority for RCPS as this school year gets into full swing, Tinnell said. Rather than issuing blanket policies, individual schools are examining their student populations and data and developing unique strategies such as special events or opportunities to make up lost instruction.

“They can either take afternoon classes, and that many hours can equal an absence,” Tinnell said. “(Massanutten Technical Center) set up a Saturday school where students who couldn’t stay after school could come to MTC and do three hours of tutoring.”

Tinnell acknowledged, however, that each student’s situation is unique.

“When we have a certain number of students, we have to take the truancy approach,” Tinnell said. “We have to go to the court and have the court help us get the students to school, and that’s just the reality of this job.”

Tinnell said the biggest focus in curbing chronic absenteeism across the department, from kindergarteners to high school seniors, is communication and really helping kids understand what they’re missing out on when they don’t attend class.

“We can offer them incentives, but they are only valid for a limited time,” Tinnell said. “We want kids to go to school because they have goals they want to achieve and to understand that a good education is the key to their future success… That’s what we want.”

Harrisonburg: “Trend in the right direction”

Harrisonburg City Public Schools is also working to reduce absenteeism rates across the division. April Howard, chief officer of student services for HCPS, said the issue was a major topic at district leadership meetings before this school year.

“When we review our three-year trends in absenteeism rates, we are showing that we are trending in the right direction. All of our schools have made progress over these three years, which is exciting,” Howard said. “We asked each school to look more closely at their attendance data. They were able to review the different subgroups and set goals based on the needs of their individual schools.”

Howard said there are “attendance teams” at each school and that HCPS also has a team of three “attendance support officers” at the department level. The third position was created this year with a specific group of students in mind.

“The divisional attendance team will help monitor those goals and progress and communicate with the teams. So it’s a two-way communication between the divisional attendance team and the in-school teams,” Howard said. “The newest position will focus on all high schools to specifically help with chronic absenteeism.”

Departmental liaisons also conduct home visits to discuss with families what barriers may be preventing students from attending school and to take steps to address school withdrawals if necessary.

This year, Howard said, HCPS will focus on providing educational materials on the impact of school absenteeism in the form of newsletters, videos and other digital formats.

“We provide information and resources to educate them about the importance of attending school and what the research says about school attendance and its connection to academic success,” Howard said.

Howard said the department is also preparing to use a new platform to further improve efficient communication with families.

“We believe it’s important that families have the opportunity to respond and interact with their student’s absence, so we’re looking into a platform called Talking Points,” Howard said. “We’ll use that platform to communicate with families on a daily basis.”

Staff at HCPS, as well as RCPS and many other departments across the state, said that despite improvements in chronic absenteeism, addressing this problem remains a top priority in the coming years.

All rights reserved.