Schools work to get kids in classes

Apr. 15—Absence may make the heart grow fonder but it does not make the student better academically. In fact, a national trend of students not attending classes is creating new problems for educators.

Officials run much of the problem back to the COVID pandemic in 2020 that shut down schools and businesses. Before the pandemic about 15% of the students were chronically absent. Nationally, that number now stands at 26%.

Local schools are not reporting numbers that large, but do say they have noticed problems with kids missing school.

"We have seen our attendance rates struggle to return to pre-Covid rates. We are making some improvements, but have continued room to grow," said Washington Community Schools Superintendent Kevin Frank.

"In the wake of the pandemic, we've observed that, surprisingly, attendance reached its highest point in 2021 at 93.3% but has since fallen over the two subsequent years, reaching the lowest point in 2023 with an average attendance rate of 83.5%," said Barr-Reeve Community Schools Superintendent Andrea Huff. "We're actively monitoring this trend and remain committed to providing a healthy learning environment for all our students."

Loogootee reports about 5% of its student population is chronically absent. That number is similar to pre-COVID. Rather than student absences the surprise is that teacher absences are up, based in part by a change of attitude about working through days when they are sick.

"It appears our teacher absenteeism is greater now than it was before COVID. That may be that teachers no longer go ahead and come in and work when they feel sick," said Loogootee Community Schools Director of Curriculum and Technology Shelley Christmas.

Schools in southern Indiana were out for weeks during the pandemic. As a substitute, students did online classes. Perhaps, the biggest lesson was that online education is a poor substitute for in-person instruction.

"Online classes are not even a close substitution for in-person education," said Christmas. "We have a great online platform, but the ability to collaborate with teachers and being present in the moment is better that being online and independent. We were very fortunate. We were just out March to May 2020. We came back full-force that next school year and were able to get back into class. The kids learn more when they are in the classroom and in-person."

"Our experience has been that our students do much better with in-person school/instruction than what we have been able to provide them with online or virtual learning. There's a level of responsibility and drive that a student needs to succeed with online learning. And, those students that succeed at online learning must have a parent champion in their life that helps support their ability to complete the online program," said Frank. "We have not offered an online option for the past three school years. We do have some students who complete online classes at the high school level for alternative education where they are working on-site with our instructor or as credit recovery. Most of our credit recovery students are juniors and seniors and have a level of maturity that allows them to be successful on that type of platform."

At Barr-Reeve there are still some online options and they are tempered with additional instruction.

"Our transition to e-learning during the peak of the pandemic was met with mixed results. While online learning enabled us to continue educational activities during lockdowns, it's clear that it cannot substitute the in-person classroom experience," said Huff. "We've learned a lot about the benefits and limitations of remote learning and are working to integrate the best aspects of this approach into our teaching strategies moving forward."

Besides, attendance challenges, schools found that the students were retaining less of what the learned. Now, learning loss is an additional project for schools to work on.

"The impact COVID had on academics has been reflected in our student data, but we've made considerable strides in addressing this issue. Through targeted intervention programs, more frequent student data analysis, curriculum planning, and personalized learning plans, we've been successful in helping students achieve significant academic growth," said Huff. "We're continuously assessing and adjusting our strategies to meet each student's academic needs, leveraging data-driven approaches and specialized support services."

"We looked at our data and compared to similar schools in Indiana. We fared better than others like us. But when you compare everyone's scores to pre-COVID, overall, the state scores did go down. Learning loss did happen," said Christmas. "I think it has impacted us more than we expected. The state has implemented new strategies like the science of reading, different approaches they want schools to use and they realigned the standards."

At Washington, the approach to learning loss has come at several levels.

"We believe we have made progress with learning loss through the regular school day and through providing after school tutoring to targeted students. Our Title I program provides extra support for students behind on reading skills through grade four," said Frank. "As we did before COVID, we make efforts to help students who are behind academically. In some cases, they may receive extra support from their IEP or from what we provide our English Learner students."

Students in Indiana are required to have 180 days of education. Perhaps one of the biggest lessons from the pandemic is that each of those days hold value and figuring out ways to get kids in class and off the absentee rolls is important.

"I think the key is to make learning engaging and purposeful so that students want to be present to learn," said Frank.

"We recognize the vicious cycle where absenteeism leads to falling behind, which in turn discourages attendance," said Huff. "To combat this, we've been intentional about building the four dimensions of instruction that build the greatest belief in students that they can learn at school. These include trust, competency, dynamism and immediacy. We aim to create a supportive and understanding environment that encourages regular attendance and rekindles a love for learning."

While the schools can take their swings at improving attendance, the real answer appears to lie with parents.

"The answer for absenteeism is the parents. We have to get parents on-board and get them to realize how important school is and how important it is for their kids to react with other kids. That will also provide the soft-skills they will need for their post-secondary endeavors," said Christmas. "If you don't show up for school, odds are you won't show up for work. We need to get the parents to realize it is important for their kids to be there."

"I think the key is to make learning engaging and purposeful so that students want to be present to learn. I think what we are seeing in Indiana and the redesign of the high school diploma tracks can help in this area," said Frank. "How do we develop college and career pathways at the high school level that are engaging and providing real world experiences that our students want to participate in?"

School is about learning but after months out of the classroom another of the lessons was that having kids working from home led to isolation and social challenges. That has area schools engaging more social workers.

"Our social worker, Leah Lottes, plays a crucial role in our response to the behavioral and socialization issues emerging from the pandemic. She provides one-on-one support, facilitates group sessions, and works closely with families to address underlying issues," said Huff. "Her work is pivotal in helping students navigate the social and emotional challenges they face, fostering a supportive community that promotes healing and growth."

"We have a Youth First social worker and she works with kids in grades K-12," said Christmas. "We also work with the Samaritan Center that brings in behavioral specialists that work one-on-one with kids, and we also have a graduation and career coach who helps the older students plan their futures."

Washington has Youth First social workers and school employed social workers operating in every building to work individually with the students.

Still, when it comes to fixing the problem of absenteeism, schools believe parents hold the key to solving the problem.

"Engaging parents and caregivers is key to improving attendance and reducing absenteeism," said Huff. "If a student's attendance becomes a concern, we're strengthening our communication with families and providing resources to help them understand the importance of regular attendance. We're also working to build partnerships with parents, fostering a collaborative approach to tackle challenges and celebrate successes together."

"All corporations have the same issue. I think we have to show the parents what we are doing and the benefit of being in class," said Christmas. "During COVID when the kids were out of class mental health for the kids was low and I think that was because of the lack of social interaction, couple that with cellphones and internet and not socializing face-to-face contributed to that. I think we need to show parents the advantage of kids showing up, reacting one-on-one and having healthy relationships can be part of the encouragement for parents to get their kids in school."

Frank says the relationships between parents, students and the school will lead to the needed improvements in student attendance and performance.

"The key is to build positive relationships with parents. We are all on the same team and the goal is to help the student be successful," he said. "All of our staff aim to build those positive relationships, the classroom teacher, social worker, and principal. Even the bus driver can be someone to connect with a child and/or parent."