Attendance Update!
Chronic Absenteeism Concerns
What is Chronic Absenteeism?
Learn more about Chronic Absenteeism: This Attendance Update is to Help Families Learn More about the Importance of Daily Attendance
Throughout the school year, we have emphasized the importance of daily attendance for our students. Currently, about 21% of our school’s student population is considered Chronically Absent. That percentage is far too high, and we want to help! A student can become Chronically absent by missing too much school. This can include any absence (Excused or Unexcused). Simply missing two days of school per month with lead to a student becoming chronically absent!
As a school, we will work with students and families who are at risk of being chronically absent. To learn more about chronic absenteeism, check out this informational newsletter that we have created.
If you need additional support with helping your child get to school every day, please let us know so we can work together.
Always Learning,
Dr. Donald Frischkorn
Principal
#NoStudentLeftUnknown
#ExcellenceEveryday
" If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself "
How does a Student Become Chronically Absent?
Students who miss more than 10% of the school year are considered chronically absent. All absences count towards a student being considered chronically absent. That means that Excused Absences, Unexcused Absences, and Unverified Absences will affect a student's absenteeism.
As a school, we are well aware that students get sick, especially with the flu and other illnesses spreading in the community this time of year. However, we have found that most students who are chronically absent have struggled with school attendance every year. We want to help change that trend for our students and help set up a foundation for success when they move on to Metz and Osbourn High School. Every school in our division is working with families to improve student attendance.
Levels of Attendance
We have three areas that we focus on with our students' attendance. Students with great attendance, students that we are concerned about, and then students that are a serious concern. Attendance is levels are divided in to three categories based on the percentage of days missed.
- Great Attendance: The student is at school 96% of the school year. This means that the child is on pace to miss less than 7 days of school for the entire school year.
- Low attendance: The students with low attendance is present at school 90-95.9% of the school year. A student who has low attendance misses 8 to 17 days of school during the school year. This will cause a student to struggle in school.
- Chronic Absenteeism Concern: The students who is chronically absent and the highest concern for teachers and administrators is a student who misses more than 90% of the school year. Students who are chronically absent miss more than 18 days of school per year. This is equal to 2 days of school per month. Missing more than 18 days of school is equivalent to missing an entire month of instruction.
Why is Great School Attendance Important?
The research clearly states that students with excellent attendance achieve more success in life. Good attendance habits are established in elementary school! Students with excellent attendance read well by the end of third grade. This is pivotal for students to experience success in intermediate and middle school. Students with excellent attendance at the intermediate levels achieve higher test grades and are more connected with their classmates.
All our work on improving attendance is to ensure that all our students at Mayfield Intermediate School will graduate from high school. By the end of 6th grade, chronically absent students are at a greater risk of dropping out of high school. Our goal at Mayfield is to help families and ensure that our students are not chronically absent by the end of 6th grade.
Finally, students who display excellent attendance tend to find more success in gaining employment after high school and college. One of our goals as a school is to help students become productive and contributing members of our community.
Student Focus Groups
Mayfield Intermediate School's administrative team and other staff members are going to begin meeting with students who are chronically and getting their feedback on how we can best support the students during the school day. Our goal is to create a learning environment that is welcoming for all students. We have great staff members throughout the building. We have created incredible learning spaces that are student friendly. The school has school counselors that can meet with students and provide counseling support. We want to hear from our students on reasons that may be leading to them missing too much school.
We are going to focus on helping find the answers to the following questions:
- What are some reasons that you have missed school?
- How can we support you so that you can come to school everyday?
- What is one thing that you wish your teachers, school counselor, or principals knew so that they could better help you come to school everyday?
- What goal do you want to set for yourself in order to help improve your attendance?
Family Liaison Support
We understand that families are doing the best that they can to improve their child's attendance and we also know that some families will need additional support. Mayfield Intermediate School is fortunate to have an exceptional Family Liaison representative that can work with families and find additional school and community supports that can help improve your child's attendance.
Chronic Absenteeism Impacts our School's Accreditation Status
Not only does a student's absenteeism rate affect their academic success, but the students who become chronically absent also impact our school's ability to maintain accreditation. Every school in the state of Virginia must report their school's chronic Absenteeism rate. Last year, in Mayfield Intermediate, 19.1% of our student population was chronically absent. Our school needs to improve our students' attendance to maintain state accreditation. We need less than 15% of our student population to be chronically absent. That means that no more than 120 students in our school can miss 10% of the time that they are registered students in our school.
Please Complete the Following Survey on How the School can Support You
Principal Donald Frischkorn Ed. D.
Proud principal of Mayfield Intermediate School in Manassas, Virginia