The "New Normal" in School Attendance
Tony Wold, Ed.D.
Educational Leader with over 30 years of experience as a CBO, in HR & Labor Negotiations, Student Assessment & Curriculum, and Technology Innovations, especially in the EdTech SaaS arena.
The “New Normal” in School Attendance Now a Crisis Situation
As we reopen schools in 2023 the Business team in LEAs has just finalized the First Interim budget reports capturing how the first 3 months of actual school expenditures and revenue have trended in comparison to the adopted budget.?As part of the reconciliation process done in creating the First Interim, LEAs will update their enrollment, calculate their current ADA rate, and make expenditure and revenue adjustments, along with the incorporation of carryover funds that will change the original adopted budget.??
For LEAs in ADA-funded states such as California, Texas, and Virginia, one of the most critical indicators for developing budget assumptions is the percentage of ADA that ultimately drives revenue projections.?Through the pandemic, we clearly saw the changes in behaviors from parents and students with respect to the value of attendance.?LEAs have spent the previous year and a half messaging if students are showing any symptoms they should stay home, and this was on top of the mandatory quarantines we implemented in the past school year.??The push for a more robust Independent Study did not have the engagement results for students that were hoped for.
In 2019-2020 the Mean ADA in California was 95.90% for LEAs.?This means that half of the LEAs were above this figure with the other half below.?The nominal range of for LEAs that year was 94.0% - 97%, with most LEAs falling within that band.??
In context, the average student was absent 7.5 days in 2019-2020.
Fast forward to the last school year, 2021-2022, and the mean ADA for LEAs dropped to 91.01% (data sources are the CDE apportionment files).?This decline had the average student in California miss 16.2 days – more than double the lost learning time as in 2019-2020!??
The average student missed more than double the number of days 2021-2022.
Missing 16.7 days, as the average student did in 2021-2022, is less than 2 days away from being labeled as chronically absent.?The correlation between student attendance and dropout and graduation rates has shown that 67% of the students who do drop out or fail courses were previously chronically absent students.??
Over the past three weeks, the focus on ongoing chronic absenteeism has been widespread.?From December 10, 2022 – December 31, 2022, I found articles (see all links below) focusing on the current crises that covered the entire nation.?In that short period of time, beyond California (2, and 3) and the west, reports were published in the central (South Dakota, Illinois and 2, Michigan), north (Connecticut and 2, New York and 2, New Jersey and 2, Massachusetts, Maine), south and east (Missouri, North Carolina, Arkansas and 2, Georgia and 2, Alabama, Kansas and 2, Virginia and 2, Mississippi, and Texas), Canada (Manitoba), and the United Kingdom.?National articles came out in The 74, the Tech Advocate, The Blaze, K-12 Deep Dive, and U.S. News and World reports.
After reading even a couple of the links there is a crisis in education and the old methods no longer are working with respect to attendance.?The punitive nature of only a truancy focus needs to be replaced with a proactive approach.?As we discussed in my origin story, I am an advocate for student attendance being focused upon as the gateway to student achievement and I believe so much in our solutions as district partners from School Innovations & Achievement that I am dedicated to helping all districts to restore educational focus and improve student achievement.?SI&A is the number one provider in proactive attendance management, and we are ready to help across the nation.?The reality is that if education does not make a proactive financial investment in attendance, we could lose an entire generation of learners which would have a dire impact on the global economy in the decades beginning in 2040 and beyond.
The “New Normal” in School Attendance It is about academic achievement and the finances
In the State of Texas, after multiple years of “hold-harmless” funding and where attendance rates have dropped and chronic rates continue to soar, the discussion has shifted in the legislature toward a possible shift from funding by Average Daily Attendance (ADA) to Average Daily Membership (ADM) with the introduction of HR 30.
In the simplest of terms, an ADA state funds school districts only for students who are attending.?A district that has a 90% attendance rate and has 100 students enrolled would be funded for 90 students.?Using a 20:1 staff ratio they still need to hire 5 teachers and provide all the technology and necessary instructional materials.?Assuming the base funding per student was $8,000 that district would receive $720,000 total or ($7,200 per student) under ADA funding.??If the state moves to ADM funding, the district will receive $80,000 more to provide services to all students.??
There are currently only a handful of ADA states left, with the biggest being Texas and California.?Proponents of maintaining ADA funding believe that districts will not have enough incentive to focus on attendance unless the method of payment is tied to being in class.?In theory, this may make sense, but the reality is that funding is reduced and often from the districts that have the greatest needs.?This is an equity issue and I believe that those districts that remove politics from the equation and recognize that there benefit in focusing on Attendance in both ADA and ADM states.
The business office's reason for investing in a proactive attendance program is simple.?In an ADA state, the return on this investment increases ongoing revenue.?There however is a second benefit that is more subtle, but also why ADM states need to make attendance a priority.??When students pass 10 days of absence each year academic performance drops.?The statistics for chronic students and the correlation between failing courses and dropping out are well-defined.?What also occurs when students miss school in ADM states is that more interventions are required to support students who are academically behind.??When attendance improves, so does academic achievement, which will naturally reduce the number of students needing interventions.?Since the intervention budget is already accounted for this frees up resources for more intensive support to those students who need them.?I cannot think of a better return on investment from attendance than this as a Chief Business Official.
To illustrate, we go back to our previous chart for 100 students.?Using the current trends that have upward of 40% of students categorized as chronically absent, this means that we have 40 students who likely will need some form of academic intervention.??The average cost of intervention programs (tutoring, summer or intersession, additional supplemental support materials) has reached over $1,200 per student for many high unduplicated student count districts.?Using the ADA model of spending we see an increase in funding available for everything else when we can reduce chronic absenteeism by even half.?For an LEA with 2000 students, the change could be as much as $480,000 in ongoing revenue that could be redirected to other programs.
Going back to the concept of school funding, California chose to remain an ADA funding model in 2022 – 2023.?The Governor and Legislature recognized the lower ADA from the 2021-2022 school year would negatively impact school budgets and enacted two positive changes for LEA budgets:
School Innovations & Achievement created a “first look” sampling of the actual attendance rates of over 1 million students for LEAs in 2022-2023.?The results of this analysis produce some concerning trends for Business leaders to consider as part of their First Interim Adjustments.
The ADA range for LEAs is between 90% - 93.5% as of this “first look”
The chronic rates remain in the 30% - 40% rate with the highest numbers in the TK-3 and 9-12 grade spans.?The potential for a generational academic crisis grows the more lost learning days add up.?
As California LEAs finalize their First Interim, they will need to account for the fact that the current 3-year ADA averaging will result in LEAs dropping the 2019-2020 high year and replacing it with the current 2022-2023 rate.??
领英推荐
For all LEAs this does not even discuss the academic losses for not focusing on attendance.?What is clear for all educational stakeholders is that the time is not to make a concerted effort to focus on restoring attendance habits.?The loss of resources above for those fictional districts is all too real in many LEAs.?Moreover, the higher chronic rates will require even more interventions in the future, with declining resources.?School Innovations & Achievement has a research-based approach that is showing positive results with our partner districts.?The average district working with SI&A in the 2022-2023 school year is up in attendance by more than 3% compared to those LEAs that do not have a comprehensive focus on attendance.?With all that educators have on their plates, expecting the current staffing levels to do more is not realistic, and having a partner like SI&A can make an academic difference for a generation of students.
The “New Normal” in School Attendance The Real cost of Excessive Absences
As we have seen from all the media coverage of the attendance crisis it is time for LEAs to take action. This article began with links from articles from the last two weeks of December focusing on chronic absenteeism as a crisis.?The story continued the first 2 weeks of 2023 with over 40 more from (Arizona 2 & 3, California 2, 3, 4, & 5, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, ?Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania 2 & 3, Texas 2 & 3, Virginia 2, 3 & 4, Washington, Wisconsin, USA, National Commentary, and International: Bahamas, Ghana, Ireland, United Kingdom & 2. ?There is a clear issue and now is the time to take action.
With the number of staffing shortages and declining resources, coupled with increased student Social and Emotional Learning needs most LEAs are strapped to provide the basic support systems.?Albert Einstein is famously remembered for describing insanity as “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.”?This is directly related to attendance and the correlation to academic achievement.????????
I have been blessed in my professional career to have served in many diverse school districts and primarily I have worked in school districts that had large percentages of English language learners and students who qualified for Free and Reduced-price meals.?I quickly learned that we had to do more to maintain parent engagement as many families struggled to meet daily needs and were unavailable during the times that schools schedule events for parents.?To address this disjoint and work to level the playing field, it became evident that we need to communicate more directly to these families in their primary language with materials that are engaging to both adult and student learning.
When I am discussing attendance practices and hosting seminars one of the questions, I ask attendees is how many of them have children of their own.?Then we ask:
“How did YOU and YOUR children know what was needed to be done to prepare for entering kindergarten, middle school, and high school”
The answers are usually similar:
The follow-up is “How many of you serve at-risk populations of over 50%?”
The rhetorical follow-up question is then “How did those families know?”
Title I ("Title One"), which is a provision of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act passed in 1965 under President Lyndon Baines Johnson, is a program created by the U.S. Department of Education to distribute funding to schools and school districts with a high percentage of students from low-income families, with the intention to create programs that will better children who have special needs that, without funding, could not be properly supported.
Billions of dollars are provided through Title I with the goal of leveling the playing field and providing resources to those students who do not otherwise have the same advantages as others.?Still, only 3.6% of the National Budget is focused on investment in Education and this includes mandated special education services under IDEA, where the Federal government does not even provide 25% of the cost of services they require.?(For a district with 25,000 students and 12% receiving Special Education services if the Federal government fully funded the Special Education Services, they mandate that district would have approximately $60 million available for programs and services).
In Title I, there is even a requirement that 10% of the funds be spent on parent education and engagement.?This was enacted because it was clear that the school alone cannot change the course for a student and that the family needs to be involved.?Involvement does not have to be physical for families to be trained and provided support, which is a foundation of why the SI&A approach is reaching the home and working to restore attendance habits.
As we look forward into 2023, we know a couple of certain facts.?
While the average student was missing 14 – 16 days the past two years, our chronic students were missing 3 to 5 (42 – 80+ days) times the amount.
This is almost 1 full year of school at the most critical early literacy benchmark year.
The exact same exercise could be done for students who are in 12th grade or finishing middle school as well with similar but developmentally different consequences.??The reality is that missing school has long-term consequences.?In addition to achievement, the earning potential difference between students who graduate high school and college and those that did not have now reached well over $1 million lost.?That lost income changes the quality of life but also changes the economic situation of the communities that these students will ultimately live in.?The consequences of a reduced workforce impact pensions for today’s workers, governmental services for all, and of course the ability of the parent to be available to support the next generation of students.
We believe that all LEAs should review their current information and understand the impact of lower ADA as it impacts:
It is not too late to begin the implementation of an attendance support system.?In fact, the integration of an Attendance Management System now mid-year will ensure that the foundation is laid, and the services are in place in time for the upcoming school year.?As an educator, father, and citizen the overwhelming information about the scope of chronic absenteeism is having and what will have in the future compels me to want to act.
Hillary Clinton memorably focused, “It takes a village to raise a child.” ?Nothing could be more accurate and the first step to investing in our children is to invest in their entire family.?I encourage anyone reading this to reflect on your current attendance management supports.?Are your staff consumed with the mandated documentation to the point that they cannot meet with as many families as they wish??Is the number of students disconnected from school so large that it seems impossible to catch up??Managing attendance needs to shift to a more proactive approach than the reactive, negative, approach of truancy compliance and we need a systematic approach to attendance management.
We need to educate our families on the value of attendance not just for academic achievement but also for how this translates to success in the workforce.?I encourage everyone to reach out to me, or other support providers, so that together we can work to rebuild attendance habits and bring our focus to the academic achievement of all our students.?We cannot wait until the next school year anymore, those districts that take action now (in January and February) will be better equipped to help change this shift in behaviors, but it will take all of us to make it happen.
Executive Director | California Association of Supervisors of Child Welfare & Attendance | Advocate for Educational Equity and Support
1 年“A consistently chronic/severe 3rd-grade student will have missed conservatively at least 168 days of school by June 2023.” The pervasiveness of this is gutting, this not just a “handful” of kids but rather significant swaths of the student population.
Faculty at California State University Long Beach And President at Laurel Adler LLC Productions DBA Tiny Planet Media
1 年Wow Tony! Excellent article. You make a convincing case for how the ADA model simply doesn’t work anymore.