American students aren’t in class enough. In the 2022 school year, 41.7 million students were absent for more than 18 days. While educators hoped that student attendance would improve after the pandemic, it remains far higher than pre-COVID. From 2018 to 2023, the rate of chronic absenteeism nearly doubled, from 15 to 26 percent.
When children miss school, they are more likely to fail, drop out or be suspended, and less likely to receive adequate nutrition or the special services they may need.
“The solution isn’t one-size-fits-all and we need to be flexible with our approach to dealing with absenteeism,” said Shellie Hanes, superintendent. “Each of our schools has at least one retention specialist that is part of a team that includes the student’s teacher, counselor, tutor, principal and other staff involved in their education.”
We take a three-pronged approach that has been successful in keeping their absenteeism rate far lower than most schools.
- First, find out why they are not coming to school. The root causes are vast – including illness, mental health conditions, transportation issues, lack of childcare, a need to work, anxiety and bullying. Some students feel as if they are just too far behind in schoolwork to catch up, so they stop attending. Flex High is a trauma-resilient education community, with teachers and counselors who understand how to identify symptoms of trauma as opportunities to teach life skills rather than punishing or banishing students who act out.
- Remove those barriers. If it’s a transportation issue, they give students bus passes. A flexible schedule makes it possible for students to work while they earn their diploma. Flex creates an individualized learning plan, offers free tutoring and helps students master subjects they’re good in to gain confidence.
- Make school relevant to each student to keep them engaged. More than two-thirds of kids say they are bored listening to lectures all day about things that have no relevance to them. A personalized learning approach helps teachers understand what motivates and interests a student and tailor the curriculum. Hanes said that career technical education classes have a positive impact on attendance. Even if students are not planning a technical career, they enjoy classes like culinary, healthcare, IT, construction and media arts.
Engaging adolescents, especially those who have become disconnected and alienated from school, is not an easy task, but the integrated team approach is working for us.