Pandemic Care Newsletter
Supporting Youth School Attendance and Family Routines
Helping Students Stay on Track
Chronic abseenteism has always been a barrier to student achievement and well-being. During the pandemic more than ever, with virtual and hybrid school options, students are missing unprecented days and hours of learning time.
Creating Home Routines for Mental Wellness: Parents and caregivers are being stretched trying to monitor student activity amidst so much change between online and in-person school changes. Keeping a regular routine and home schedule, experts tell us, can help families cope better during these challenging times.
In this newsletter, we turn to our local and national experts to share their helpful tips for preventing and dealing with chronic abseenteism and effective yet compassionate parenting support tips for creating regular home routines.
Elementary Years: What You Can Do to Support Student Attendance During the Pandemic
These are the best practices from attendanceworks.org, our national experts on supporting student attendance for elementary school students and their parents/caregivers during the pandemic and endorsed by our Eaton RESA attendance expert who works with hundreds of families each year to do the hard work of helping our youth succeed. "I have seen these strategies, when applied consistently, really work," says Harriet Dean, our Eaton County Truancy Intervention Coordinator/Truant Officer. "I love seeing young people's lives change as a result of families using these tips."
- Post the School Schedule Somewhere Visible: Get and post your child’s class schedule and log in information on the refrigerator or your child’s desk. (Tri-County Area: If you need help obtaining a desk for your child, consider looking online under free items on Craigslist, on Facebook Marketplace, or contact local thrift stores like Habitat ReStore, St. Vincent DePaul or other thrift stores in your area. You can see our Tri-County Community Health Resource Guide for other financial and community supports for families needing resources).
- Practice Logging In Together: Practice logging in to virtual classes and make a plan for supporting learning for children. Contact the school if you need help logging in.
- Know the Attendance Policy: Ask about the school’s attendance policy.
- Establish a Daily Routine and Work to Keep It Consistent: Establish routines for bedtime, waking up and showing up for class.
- Establish a Space for Your Child to Work: Identify a quiet place for your child to do school work. If you have multiple children, make a schedule. Or ask your school or community agencies if they have created places for distance learning, or if noise-canceling headsets are available for students. (Tri-County note: contact your local library about computer equipment loans if needed.)
- Develop Back-Up Plans: Develop back-up plans for getting your child to school or logging in to the computer if you can’t be there to help. Find a family member, neighbor or older child who can help over the phone or who can help while wearing a mask and maintaining physical distance. Community-based organizations might also be able to help.
- Avoid Unnecessary Days or Hours Off: When school is in session, avoid non-urgent medical appointments and/or absences (e.g. family trips when/if that becomes possible for your family).
- Be in Communication with Your Child's Teacher: Ask your child’s teacher about attendance and tell the teacher any concerns you have.
- Bullying Prevention/Intervention: Find out if you child feels safe from bullying, and if not, contact the school to work with them on a solution.
For a full pdf resource sheet for elementary school parents, click here.
Middle and High School Years: What You Can Do to Support Student Attendance During the Pandemic
- Request a schedule of classes and log in information for your teen.
- Post your teen’s class schedule and log in information in a visible location, such as on the refrigerator or teen desk.
- Identify a quiet place for your teen to participate in class. Or ask your school or community agencies if they have created places for distance learning. If you have multiple children, make a schedule. (Tri-County Area: If you need help obtaining a desk for your child, consider looking online under free items on Craigslist, on Facebook Marketplace, or contact local thrift stores like Habitat ReStore, St. Vincent DePaul or other thrift stores in your area.
- Ask for help from school officials, after-school program providers, other parents or community agencies if you’re having trouble getting online or need help with food, housing or some other challenge. Note: You can see our Tri-County Community Health Resource Guide for other financial and community supports for families needing resources.
- Know the school’s attendance policy and the consequences for absences.
- Contact your tween or teen’s teachers and let them know how to best reach during the pandemic you should they need to about attendance or other matters.
- Check on your teen’s attendance to make sure they are attending all of their classes regularly.
- Talk about the importance of showing up to school every day so your teen knows this is your expectation.
- Encourage your teen to maintain daily routines, such as finishing homework or getting a good night’s sleep.
- Avoid scheduling non-urgent dental and medical appointments when classes are in session.
- Make sure your teen wears a mask, as needed when school is in session, and gets the flu vaccine and other required shots.
- Find out if your teen feels safe from bullying.
- Make sure that school discipline policies don’t lead to your teen becoming disengaged or pushed out of school. If there are problems, work with your school to find a solution.
- Check in weekly about your teen’s academic progress and seek help from teachers or tutors.
- Stay on top of your teen’s social contacts. Peer pressure can lead to skipping class. Teens who have a hard time making friends can feel isolated.
Keeping a Schedule During the Pandemic for Young Children
Toddler and Pre-School Children:
The Centers for Disease Control experts share the three key ingredients to building structure in the home:
- Consistency: Consistency means that you respond to your child’s behavior the same way every time no matter what is going on or how you’re feeling.
- Predictability: Predictability means your child knows what will happen and how you will respond. When your daily routines are predictable, your child knows what to expect for the day. When your rules are predictable, your child knows how you will react to her behavior.
- Follow-through: Following through means that you do what you say you will do in response to your child’s behaviors. This is often called the “say what you mean and mean what you say.” (But, don't say it mean) guideline.
To see whole guide on creating structure and rules at home, go to: https://www.cdc.gov/parents/essentials/structure/index.html
Pre-K and K Children:
Excerpt from PBS Kids by Suzanne Bouffard is a writer, developmental psychologist, and author.
For most of us, life feels anything but normal right now with the COVID-19 pandemic, schools closed and working from home. But you can create a new normal for your family by having consistent routines.
Children thrive on routines. To little ones, there is so much new in their worlds, their brains and their bodies every day that making things predictable is reassuring. Kids need that reassurance now more than ever...
Above all, as you navigate your new routine, try to cultivate patience, practice empathy for your kids and keep a sense of humor. This can be difficult in times of crisis, but it’s also more important than ever. Fortunately, kids give us lots of reasons to laugh. And those unpredictable moments can be just what we need to make our new routines work. For concrete steps to making a home routine for young children click go here: https://www.pbs.org/parents/thrive/schools-closed-how-to-make-a-new-home-routine
Nurturing Parents
"Consistency and putting in quality time is so important. My kids and I started taking a walk together every day during the pandemic back in March, and we made our routine fun and predictable, helping all of us cope with the changing times. We are not only happier but more fit as well!" See infographic below from the Nurturing Parent Curriculum on control vs. discipline. If you are interested in taking our next free online Nurturing Parenting class on Mondays in February with Charisse, sign up here.
Keeping a Schedule with Youth Who Experience ADHD
For Elementary Students with ADHD:
An article on how to care for youth with ADHD during home-schooling with a Sample Schedule and Resources for Students with ADHD
Keeping a Schedule with School-Age Youth Through Teens
Except from "Age-Based Tips to Help Juggle Parenting & Working at Home During COVID-19" by Damon Korb, MD, FAAP, is member of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Section on Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics and author of the AAP book, Raising an Organized Child: Five Steps to Boost Independence, Ease Frustration, and Promote Confidence. See full article here.
School-Age Children
- Create a schedule. Family routines are important to reduce anxiety and improve behavior. Putting together a flexible master schedule for the week is helpful for all children, but especially for school-aged kids. Fill those routines with a variety of activities such as regular meal times, physical and imaginative play, artwork, building, helping with housework, thinking and learning activities, and free time. You can fit chunks of time in your family's daily schedule for you to do your work, and explain to your child that during these times they get to be a “big kid" and occupy themselves with their own activities.
- Give choices. Independence gets more important as children get older, and yet kids this age still need parents to provide structure. One way to give your child more independence is to offer choices within each of their daily activity categories.
- Parents can help kids to generate lists ahead of time for each type of activity, such as things that they can do outside, creative play, exercise and chores. As your child moves through the day, from one activity to the next, they can make their own plan or select one from the list of options that they helped create. Older children can help parents make these lists, giving them more control over their options while at the same time helping them learn to plan ahead.
Tweens & Teens
- Keep structure. One of the tricky things about teens is that they can entertain themselves for long stretches, but often do not make good time management choices. They tend to stay up late, sleep in, and may spend the day on their phone, gaming, or watching TV. You might be tempted to leave them alone, if that affords you the opportunity to get more work done. However, tweens and teens still need structure and schedules and regular check-ins with parents on their daily work.
- Set goals. In addition to the types of routines that are good for school-age children, setting goals is useful for tweens and teens. Teens are capable of forward thinking (like planning, anticipating and estimating), but don't often use those skills unless challenged. Goal setting is a great exercise for their brains. It encourages them not only to think about possibilities, but also to make plans for how to reach them.
Remember: Without a doubt, families are in the midst of an incredibly challenging time. Reassess your work-at-home goals each week and set realistic expectations, reaching out for help if you need it.
No matter the age of your child, take a moment each day to be truly present, listen to your child's thoughts and concerns, and then enjoy some playtime. Strengthening your bond will help them feel more secure, giving them the ability to be more independent, which will hopefully buy you some extra free time too! Be creative, be safe, and be well.
Newsletter brought to you in collaboration with these partners:
Eaton RESA Prevention Program Services
The Prevention Program Services (PPS) department has gained a regional and state reputation as a leader in connecting school and community initiatives to support the goal of preventing risky behaviors and negative health outcomes while improving youth academic achievement and success. All of our prevention programs and services are funded through grants. Some grants are designated to serve certain counties; others are tri-county in nature.
Student success cannot occur if students experience barriers to learning. PPS offers the consultation services, professional development and training, technical assistance, and resource coordination needed to help schools and communities prevent the risky behaviors and negative health outcomes that interfere with learning. PPS strives to provide or promote research-informed and evidence-based strategies and programs to support students in reaching their full potential.
Email: lmarshall@eatonresa.org
Website: https://www.eatonresa.org/prevention/
Location: 1790 E. Packard Highway, Charlotte, MI 48813
Phone: 517.541.8771