'Boots on the ground, making our rounds': Savannah school leaders combat truancy

The Savannah-Chatham County Public School System (SCCPSS) wants families, students, and the greater Savannah-Chatham community to know that attendance matters.

On Friday March 22, district and city leaders including Savannah Mayor Van Johnson and SCCPSS superintendent Denise Watts, Ed. D., attended the Attendance Matters Chronic Absenteeism Campaign. They also joined the Board of Education's Police Department (BOEPD) truancy sweeps to convey the importance of kids getting to school for in-person instruction.

Deputy Superintendent of Teaching and Learning Bernadette Ball-Oliver said, "Research indicates that when students are chronically absent from school, they may be two times more likely to be detained and increases their chances of becoming dropouts because they are academically challenged."

She also said that nearly one in four students in the state of Georgia are chronically absent. She was likely referring to the Georgia Governor’s Office of Student Achievement directory. Regarding 2023 attendance across public schools in the state, the directory shows the average number of students who were chronically absent (those who missed 15 or more days) was 23.2%. For SCCPSS, it was 28.2%.

The state recorded 18,872 students drop out in 2023. That's a rate of 3.2%. SCCPSS lost 301 students to drop outs in 2023 at a rate of 2.7%.

Attendance Matters, again

SCCPSS Director of Student Affairs Quentina Miller-Fields spoke about the importance of attendance back at a September 2023 press conference during Attendance Awareness Month. “We're putting our heads together and finding resources and finding out what those barriers are to have our students in school,” she had said at the time.

This past week's campaign laid out how the district plans to "leverage a multifaceted approach to combat chronic absenteeism, including:"

• Community Outreach: Engaging with parents, guardians, educators and community members to raise awareness about the impact of chronic absenteeism and the importance of regular school attendance.

• Student Support Services: Providing resources and support services to address the underlying issues contributing to chronic absenteeism, such as family dynamics, mental health challenges, or socioeconomic barriers.

• Innovative Solutions: Collaborating with schools to implement innovative strategies, such as mentorship programs, attendance incentives, and technology-driven interventions to encourage and track student attendance.

Miller-Fields highlighted some of the specific efforts. "We started an initiative called Boots on the Ground. Our boots are on the ground, making our rounds."

She said the initiative is about inspecting schools and making sure they comply with protocols. "We want to make sure our schools offer a warm and welcoming environment." She talked about assessing best practices at schools with higher attendance rates to see if those practices might apply to other schools. She also talked about how SCCPSS has met with juvenile court judges at the county and state levels.

More on attendance: Schools leadership promote Attendance Awareness Month and provide literacy updates

Attendance could trump literacy: Should Savannah school system have two North Stars?

'In-person school is where we are now'

Ball-Oliver did not provide specific year-over-year attendance numbers, but stated that when SCCPSS returned to in-person instruction post-COVID, the district actually saw a decline in attendance. "We have not seen those numbers actually returned to where we were pre-pandemic. Have we seen some slight increases, and I stress the word 'slight'? Yes."

For more context on the numbers within the district, she referred the public to the Semester 1 Student Attendance report that was shared during the March school board meeting. "There's a lot of work to be done to actually get our families and our students to understand that in-person school is where we are now."

If families have health reasons or other reasons that impact them getting their students to school, Ball-Oliver reminded the public that SCCPSS does have a virtual school known as Savannah-Chatham e-Learning Academy (SCELA). Other virtual schooling options available to families are Georgia Connections Academy (2763 Meadow Church Road, Suite 208, Duluth) and Georgia Cyber Academy (1745 Phoenix Blvd., Suite 100, Atlanta). Both of these schools are accredited charter schools that provide virtual instruction and student support.

Ball-Oliver noted with SCELA, however, that, "We're also finding that there's some attendance challenges there. with some of those families."

Truancy sweeps seek to assist, not punish

Another aspect of the plan that was implemented after the March 22 press conference were truancy sweeps. Watts and Johnson accompanied BOEPD officers and social workers on one of the district's four annual sweeps where they knocked on the doors of multiple homes.

Framed as a means to provide information and support for parents or guardians, the sweep with Watts in tow resulted in three unopened doors, two of which appeared to be vacant. A maintenance worker at one apartment in the River Point I complex off of East Broad and Wheaton streets said the unit was not inhabited at the moment. The maintenance worker was not able to confirm how long the apartment had been vacant.

BOEPD Sergeant Andre Jenkins was the officer on hand during Watts's sweep. He noted that several of the residents were vacant. "So, that means that those parents have moved out. We don't know where the child is. We don't know if the child is still in the Chatham County school or if they moved out of state."

The BOEPD and school social workers then try to reach out to families after the sweep to update addresses or contact any family members included in the schools' database. Their aim is to locate the child's whereabouts.

SCCPSS social worker Natussha Futch said that some truancy cases reveal that families who may have moved outside of the district also may have never alerted the school system. "So, I'll make contact with them after we finished the sweep, and I'll let them know that we need to update the address."

Regarding the non-vacant homes with doors unanswered, Futch said,  "When Officer Jenkins and I go out, we usually have around 15 cases, and we usually make contact with roughly 10 to 12 families. But I think because we went out later in the day, everyone is now gone." She said her and Jenkins typically start their sweeps between 7 and 7:30 a.m.

At one home in the River Point II neighborhood zone for Andrea B. Williams Elementary (1150 Wheaton St.), a parent did come to the door with a toddler by her side. An 8-year-old in the home had been chronically absent from A. B. Williams. Watts said that the parent acknowledged it is her role to get her son to school but that he did not want to go. The parent indicated to Watts that most mornings she is struggling to get the child out the door. Jenkins retrieved his business card from his patrol car and gave it to the parent. He told the parent to call him the next time the student was struggling with wanting to walk to school. Jenkins offered to walk over from A.B. Williams and accompany the student to school.

At the SCCPSS school board spring 2024 retreat on March 27, Watts reiterated comments she has heard from students that their perception is that there are no consequences for being absent, though the district has policies that clearly state that there are, such as referrals to the state and juvenile court systems by the SCCPSS social workers should other intervention methods not positively impact a student's attendance.

Ball-Oliver confirmed that this current school year SCCPSS has made more than 3,000 referrals to social workers for attendance. She said, "105 of those made it to the state board, that's typically our elementary school students, and 73 to juvenile court."

SCCPSS schools attendance report: Are there consequences for not showing up?

Joseph Schwartzburt is the education and workforce development reporter for the Savannah Morning News. You can reach him at JSchwartzburt@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Savannah's school system conducts truancy sweeps