Curbing chronic absenteeism
Chronic absenteeism can be a drain on school climate . When students are not in school , whether for excused or unexcused absences , they lose out on the opportunity to learn . As such , chronic absenteeism must be addressed through local accountability plans , and has been identified as an indicator for school success in the California School Dashboard accountability system .
Building a Successful Attendance Plan : A Practitioner ’ s Approach is a new workshop from ACSA that provides practical strategies and best practices for school personnel to build successful attendance improvement plans through a multi-tiered system of support . Learning includes :
• The reasons behind the increased focus on attendance at both the federal and state levels .
• How to collect and analyze multiple measures of attendance .
• How chronic absenteeism can be addressed through the LCAP .
• Why it is important to develop and implement a multi-tiered system of support for attendance – prevention , early identification and intervention .
• Strategies and best practices related to attendance improvement .
The suggested audience includes district administrators , principals , assistant principals , aspiring administrators , classified management . It ’ s highly recommended that schools bring a team to the training .
Building a Successful Attendance Plan is scheduled for 8:30 a . m . -3 p . m . Jan . 23 , 2018 at the Yolo County Office of Education and March 22 at Riverside COE .
Learn more about the program and register online at www . acsa . org / trainings . For more information , email Rhonda Morgan at rmorgan @ acsa . org or call ( 800 ) 608-ACSA .
ACSA Educational Services riod . Needless to say , that was not working .
The committee spent considerable time drafting common rules for all games , from basketball to tetherball to foursquare , and I communicated the expectation that all teachers would devote time during PE to teaching them . Every duty teacher had a set of rules on a clipboard and was expected to take it to yard duty , along with a whistle ( a noticeable degree of avoidance , followed by office referrals when fights ensued , had been a prevailing duty teacher practice ).
We also introduced the idea of “ do-overs ” – what a radical concept ! This headed off countless altercations and referrals .
Once standards are drafted , post behavior reminders everywhere possible – cafeteria expectations in the cafeteria , library expectations in the library , etc . Be sure they are phrased in positive terms , avoiding “ No ___” or “ Don ’ t ___.” Ms . Ruis taught the students to think of the cafeteria as “ our restaurant ,” and the reminder poster was accordingly titled .
Consequences do NOT need to be posted , and can trap educators into administering a consequence that is not necessarily appropriate to the situation , while they simultaneously create a negative visual environment .
Guideline No . 6 – In office referrals , teach students the words .
Some students come from homes that are characterized by fighting and yelling – even abuse . The only problem-solving strategy they know is fighting , or yelling or arguing . You and your APs , if you have them , may need to rethink your office discipline strategies .
Never raise your voice to students – even repeat clients . School is the place where students need sane discipline , especially if it is missing at home . Stay calm ; student discipline may not have been on your agenda , but it is an important part of your job as an educator . This is true for teachers too . Ask questions , such as :
• What was your mistake ? ( Sometimes this requires several attempts , as students will want to talk , instead , about what others have done .)
• Was that respectful ?
• What are you willing to do to make it right ?
One sixth grade student who had trampled a first grade class flower garden to show off for his buddies went to the class and apologized . Then he helped replant new flowers during his lunch period . Fighting students gradually learned to speak one at a time , in an appropriate indoor voice , without interrupting , without pointing , always using names when speaking to or about another fighter .
They learned to make eye contact , shake hands and apologize . They learned to say , “ Apology accepted .” All of these were new utterances for most fighters .
Initially , this took many additional hours of my time . Delivering a terse lecture and handing out suspensions would have been much faster . But fighters had consequences , and if they were missing learning time , they needed to make up their lost learning .
Over time , students became oriented to the new expectations , as fights and referrals of all kinds began to decline . One day a very memorable frequent flyer stormed into my office and flopped into a chair , declaring angrily , “ I know what my mistake was !” Although this interaction still took time in order to calm and redirect him , it was much shorter than in the beginning .
Guideline No . 7 – In the classroom , teach students the words .
The committee decided that teachers also could help by explicitly teaching and having students role-play new responses and routines for problem solving . We used the following list :
• Tell them to stop .
• Say , “ I ’ m sorry .”
• Talk it over .
• Share .
• Ignore .
• Walk away .
• Do something else .
• Take turns .
• In a game , do it over .
• In a game , take a vote .
After everyone had taught and students role-played these responses , I made visits to classrooms and asked for volunteers to demonstrate for me how they would handle a specific kind of problem I presented . Duty teachers now had a new tool in their arsenal when
14 Leadership