In addition to the other support positions I’ve discussed in previous columns, Rowan-Salisbury Schools is very fortunate to have four outstanding attendance counselors.
Those individuals are housed at four sites across the county. Each attendance counselor works with eight to nine schools and has a caseload of approximately 5,000 students. Yes five thousand students.
Often attendance counselors are called social workers because they fulfill many of the same responsibilities and usually have a social worker certification.
Why are these attendance counselors so important? We know that missing school is a key predictor and cause of dropouts. When students begin missing school and getting behind in their classwork, catching up becomes a daunting task. The more days a student misses from school, the more difficult it becomes for the student to understand the information needed to be successful in his or her classroom and to be fully engaged in the classroom dynamics.
A student’s involvement in class participation is vital to their academic success. When students become so far behind and continually miss the classroom interaction, they often give up and quit.
Research studies have indicated that students who attend school regularly learn more and are more successful than students with high absenteeism. Students develop their attendance patterns at an early age and need to begin establishing good attendance patterns in elementary school.
Attendance Counselors are responsible for enforcing state attendance regulations and providing effective, proactive strategies for improving attendance. Between August and December of 2008, our four attendance counselors received 758 referrals for attendance problems.
Because of the volume of referrals, attendance counselors focus on unexcused absences. Unexcused absences are defined as a student’s willful absence from school with or without the knowledge of the parent or a student’s absence from school for any reason other than those listed in the school system’s Code of Conduct. Some examples of unlawful absences would be working at home or at a business, indifference of parent, oversleeping, babysitting or non-educational trips.
Attendance counselors make home visits and are the school system’s connection to the court system in those cases where parents continue to violate the state’s compulsory attendance laws. They attend court, give testimony, and assist with monitoring the progress of the students.
They serve as liaisons with community agencies in providing assistance to truant students. Between August and December, the attendance counselors have handled 17 court petitions.
Attendance rates have stayed essentially the same over the last few years. We feel that the hiring of attendance counselors has certainly helped to stabilize the attendance of our students. The systemwide attendance rate for the first three months of school in 2007 averaged 94.63 percent, while the average for the first three months of school this year was 94.86 percent.
The federal government recognizes the need for students to be in school and includes attendance as one of the goals in No Child Left Behind. Every sub-group in the No Child Left Behind accountability model must have 90 percent or more attendance rate in order for any of the academic achievement scores to count toward making Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP).
In other words, a school could meet all of their academic goals and not make AYP because of their attendance rate.
Attendance counselors are often asked to verify domiciles for enrollment and athletic eligibility and verify homeless status of students and their families. They assist with locating missing students and act as a support with the Department of Social Services in locating children. Their responsibilities continue to expand throughout the school year as the needs of our students grow.
The new federal Safe Schools/Healthy Students Grant called LINKS (Learning, Intervention, Nurturing, Knowledge, and Student Achievement) will add approximately 10 individuals with social work degrees who will fulfill similar duties to our present attendance counselors. The school system desperately needs these additional support personnel to address the many responsibilities and roles of the present attendance counselors.
There are never enough funds to meet all of our needs. Having this extra help and improving students’ attendance in school will certainly benefit our students and address one of the major reasons for dropping out of school.
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Dr. Judy Grissom is superintendent of the Rowan-Salisbury Schools.