2015 FASSA- Chronic Absenteeism as a Barrier to Student Achievement

Amber Brundage9/18/15

abrundage@usf.edu

Objectives

• Know what chronic absenteeism is and the implications

• Know the rates of chronic absenteeism for your district and schools within the district

• Understand strategies and tools that can help you combat chronic absenteeism as a barrier

• Develop action steps for….

Advance Organizer

• Chronic Absenteeism Overview– Definition– Identification– Prevalence

• Implications of Chronic Absenteeism– Academic– Graduation/Post-secondary– Community

• Responding to Chronic Absenteeism– Problem Solving Model

• District and School Examples– Examples– Resources

Attendance Background Information

• Florida Law (Section 1003.21, Florida Statutes) states: – all children who are either six years of age, who will be

six years old by February 1 of any school year, or who are older than six years of age but who have not attained the age of 16 years, must attend school regularly during the entire school term.

– A student who attains the age of 16 years during the school year is not subject to compulsory attendance beyond the date of which the student attains that age if he/she files a formal declaration of intent to terminate school enrollment with the school district.

What is Chronic Absenteeism (CA)?

• No standard definition– Often based on total number of days missed

• Doesn’t differentiate reasons for absences• States vary in threshold for number of days (15-21)

• Frequently defined as:– Missing 10% or more of instructional days

• Florida one of few states that collect data on CA– FL reports students missing 21 or more days per year

How Do We Identify Students who are CA?

• The use of Early Warning Systems (EWS) attendance indicator– 18+ days annually– 9+days per semester– 4-5 days per quarter

• Previous year data- create a “watch list”• September Attendance- Olson, 2014

– 0-2 Days– 2+ Days– 4+ Days

Make a Prediction

• Poll Anywhere Question about how many students in FL are chronically absent

Attendance Works – Chronic Absenteeism Video

• http://www.attendanceworks.org/new-video-attendance-works-a-community-imperative/

• https://vimeo.com/63614396

How does this differ from truancy?

• Truancy typically defined as specified number or frequency of unexcused absences within a given time period– Often an underestimate of the absenteeism magnitude

• Florida law defines "habitual truant" as a student who has 15 or more unexcused absences within 90 calendar days with or without the knowledge or consent of the student's parent or guardian, and who is subject to compulsory school attendance.

What is the prevalence of CA nationally?

• Based on national research, conservative estimates:– 10% of US students miss 21+ days of school per year– 14-15% of US students miss 18+ days of school per

year

5-7.5 Million students each year!!Balfanz & Byrnes, 2012

What is the prevalence of CA in FL?

• According to data reported to FL DOE during the 2013/2014 school year, 9.5% of K-12 students were absent 21+ days

292,297 students

What does 292, 297 look like?

82,300

88,548 65,890

54, 559 out of 76,100

2013-14 Chronic Absenteeism Rates by District

Source: Education Information and Accountability Services, Florida Department of Education

0 – 9.9%

10% – 14.9%

15% – 19.9%

20% – 30%

Who is CA- Rates by Grade

Balfanz & Byrnes, 2012

Who is CA- by Demographics

Balfanz & Byrnes, 2012

What are Legal Requirements for Attendance- District Level?

• Florida law (Section 1003.26, Florida Statutes) specifies steps for enforcement of regular school attendance. It is the responsibility of the school district superintendent to enforce school attendance of all children who are subject to compulsory school age requirements. The responsibility includes:– Develop policies and procedures to ensure that schools respond in a

timely manner to each unexcused absence, or absence for which the reason is unknown.

– Contact the home for every unexcused absence or absence for which the reason is unknown, to obtain parent justification for the absence.

– Evaluate each justification and, based on district policy, determine whether the absence is excused or unexcused; if excused, allow the student to make up assigned work without academic penalty.

Legal Requirements Continued• Track excused and unexcused absences.• Identify and refer students who may be developing a pattern of

nonattendance to the school child study team for intervention services.

• Schedule a meeting with certain identified parents to discuss their child's attendance.

• Implement prevention and intervention strategies to address truancy and attendance issues as required for drivers' licenses and related requirements for habitual truants.

• Send a notice to the superintendent of schools and to the district home education contact regarding patterns of nonattendance for specific students.

• Refer habitual truancy cases to the case staffing committee and/or child-in-need- of-services provider for assistance

What are Legal Requirements for Attendance- School-Level?

• The policies must provide that public schools track excused and unexcused absences and contact the home in the case of an unexcused absence from school, or an absence from school for which the reason is unknown, to prevent the development of patterns of nonattendance.

School Requirements Continued

• Each public school shall implement the following steps to promote and enforce regular school attendance:– (1) CONTACT, REFER, AND ENFORCE.—– (a) Upon each unexcused absence, or absence for which

the reason is unknown, the school principal or his or her designee shall contact the student’s parent to determine the reason for the absence. If the absence is an excused absence, as defined by district school board policy, the school shall provide opportunities for the student to make up assigned work and not receive an academic penalty unless the work is not made up within a reasonable time.

School Requirements Continued• If a student has had:

– at least five unexcused absences, – or absences for which the reasons are unknown, within a calendar month – or 10 unexcused absences, – or absences for which the reasons are unknown, within a 90-calendar-day

period– The student’s primary teacher shall report to the school principal or his or

her designee that the student may be exhibiting a pattern of nonattendance. – The principal shall, unless there is clear evidence that the absences are not a

pattern of nonattendance, refer the case to the school’s child study team to determine if early patterns of truancy are developing.

– If the child study team finds that a pattern of nonattendance is developing, whether the absences are excused or not:

• a meeting with the parent must be scheduled to identify potential remedies, and the principal shall notify the district school superintendent and the school district contact for home education programs that the referred student is exhibiting a pattern of nonattendance.

School Requirements Continued

• If an initial meeting does not resolve the problem, the child study team shall implement the following:1. Frequent attempts at communication between the teacher and the

family.2. Evaluation for alternative education programs.3. Attendance contracts.

• The child study team may, but is not required to, implement other interventions, including referral to other agencies for family services or recommendation for filing a truancy petition pursuant to s. 984.151.

• (d) The child study team shall be diligent in facilitating intervention services and shall report the case to the district school superintendent only when all reasonable efforts to resolve the nonattendance behavior are exhausted.

IMPLICATIONS OF CHRONIC ABSENTEEISM

I

What are the Academic Implications of CA?

• Student CA in Kindergarten have lower academic performance in 1st

– 2 X’s greater impact for low SES (Chang & Romero, 2008)

• Baltimore study found those who were CA in Pre-K and K more likely to be:– CA in later grades– Retained– Lower achievement levels (Connolly & Olson, 2012)

• A study by GA DOE found that 3% increase (5 days) in attendance would have led to more than 55,000 students to pass ELA, reading or math standardized tests in grades 3-8 most impactful for those who missed 5-10 days of school (Balfanz & Byrnes, 2012)

Implications of CA- Continued

• Students with chronic absenteeism in middle grades are at high risk for course failure in high school (Allensworth, Gwynne, Moore & de la Torre, 2014)

• Among 9th graders, attendance was the strongest predictor of course performance which was the strongest predictor of graduation (Allensworth & Easton 2007)

Florida CA and FCAT Scores

Balfanz & Byrnes, 2012

What are the Implications for Dropout- Utah 2010 Graduating Cohort?

Henderson, Hill, & Norton, 2014

What are the Graduation & Post-Secondary Implications for Students with CA- National Center for Educational Statistics ELS 2002?

Balfanz & Byrnes, 2012

What are the Community Implications for CA?

• Data from New York and Rhode Island show that 3/4ths of those with Juvenile Justice involvement had a history of CA (www.ridatahub.org)

• Higher daytime crime rates– Data from California found that 60% of juvenile crime

happened between 8am-3pm when students should have been in school

• In FL 10/11 school-year roughly 83,500 students did not graduate with their cohort which will translate into loss of:

• 4000 new jobs• $597 million in GSP

(American Bar Association Commission on Youth At Risk, 2012)

RESPONDING TO CHRONIC ABSENTEEISM

How do we respond to CA?

Define the Problem/Goal

• Step One – Critical Elements– Desired goal(s)– Current student(s)

performance level(s)

– Current performance of comparable group

– Gap analysis

• Attendance Application:– What is our desired goal?

• 80% of students with 95% or better attendance (9 or fewer absences per year)

• 5% or fewer students chronically absent (18+ days)

– What is current performance?• What percentage of students have 95% or

greater attendance? (Tier 1)• What percentage of students are chronically

absent? (Tier 1)

– What is the current performance of comparable group?

• District-wide• Regionally• School• Grade-level• Sub-group

Look for outliers- positive and negative– What is the gap between current

performance and the goal?

Analyze the ProblemAttendance Application:• Generate evidence based hypotheses:

Balfanz & Byrnes (2012) 3 reasons:

– Can’t- something prevents them from attending (illness, transportation, child care or family obligations)

– Won’t- avoidance of interactions or events at school (affective or perceptions physical/psychological safety issues)

– Don’t- would rather be somewhere else or do not make the effort to attend school (engagement)

Systems Hypotheses– Policies– Procedures/Practices

• Validate/invalidate hypotheses– Collect data to determine the reasons for absences:

• Surveys• Self-Assessments• Interviews• Policy/practice analysis

• Step Two – Critical Elements– Generate

evidence based hypotheses

• Frameworks of domains to generate hypotheses

– Validate/invalidate hypotheses

Develop and Implement a Plan

Attendance Application:• Match intervention type

and intensity to need across tiers

• Develop specific action plans at various levels:– District– School– Grade-level– Class– Subgroup– Student

• Step Three – Critical Elements– Link

instruction/intervention to validated hypotheses

– Specific action plans (what, when, where, who, support)

– Monitoring for fidelity– Integrate within tiers

Intervention Options- Tier 1• District or school-wide attendance goals• Increased focus on collection, monitoring and reporting of attendance data to all

stakeholders– Students– Family– Community

• Public recognition of good and improved attendance• Homeroom/Class attendance competitions• School health programs• Social-emotional curriculum• Anti-violence/bullying curriculum• Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

– Flexible pacing – Student learning communities– Students as instructional problem solvers– Multiple engagement options and instructional scaffold tools to meet student needs

• Restorative Justice Process• Transportation support• District and school policies that support attendance

– Suspension due to absences– Make-up work – Tardy policies

Intervention Options Tiers 2 & 3• Attendance/re-engagement contracts

– Restorative Justice approach• Wake-up calls• Mentors

– Specific protocols• Peer attendance buddy• Check & Connect• Daily Check-in

– Phone call when absent• Connection with physical/dental and mental health providers• Alternate transportation options• Counseling groups • Community agency supports• Academic interventions

Evaluate the Response to Instruction/Intervention

• Step Four – Critical Elements– Monitor

progress with appropriate frequency

– Establish Positive, Questionable, or Poor response

– Make appropriate instructional decisions based on established response

Attendance Application:– Monitoring may be at individual or aggregate

level• Reduction in absences

– Frequency– Duration

• Does the intervention intensity match the need????

– Depending on Tier/intensity of intervention progress monitoring may be:

• Daily Weekly Monthly• Quarterly Semester Annually

– Evaluation of the system• Intervention effectiveness

– Reduction in students who are off-track for attendance or are CA for at least 70%

• System monitoring and response to CA– Self Assessment – Number/percentage of CA students receiving

interventions with intensity matched to need

DISTRICT AND SCHOOL EXAMPLES

District Example- Background

• District exploration started as questions attendance in general and as an off-shoot of work at a specific school– Attendance reporting practices– Attendance as a Tier 1 issue– School specific concerns

0-4 4-9 10-14 15-19 20+0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

33%31%

18%

9% 10%

21%

29%

20%

12%

19%

7%

22% 21%

16%

35%

Average Percent of Students by Days Absent

ESMSHS

Days Absent

Perc

ent

of S

tude

nts

What is the percent of students absent by threshold?For each school level (Elementary, Middle, High)

0-4 5-9 10-14 15-19 20+0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

60.00%

49%

44%41%

36%

31%

52%

46%

41%

35%

27%

56% 56% 56%

51%

40%

Percent of Students Proficient by Absent Threshold

ESMSHS

What is the percent of students proficient by threshold?For each school level (Elementary, Middle, High)

_x0006_0-1.09 _x0008_1.1-2.09 _x0008_2.1-3.09 _x0007_3.1-4.00

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

23

16

11

7

36

27

20

14

Average Absences by GPATraditional By Period

GPA

Ave

arge

Num

ber o

f Abs

ence

sWhat is the difference in average absences by GPA when calculating by days compared to by period?

Recommendation #1Student Engagement WorkgroupPurpose

Use Early Warning Systems to review trend data, answer key questions, categorize regions and school based on tiered levels of need, make recommendations for changes to policies and procedures, communicate with regional teams and student services PLC teams, develop strategic plan, monitor effectiveness of school plans

Timelines: Feb, Apr, Jun

Other FactorsCommunity InvolvementData Systems (tools and timelines)Status and scope of SE interventions

Membership

• LCED• Principal (High School)• Principal (Elementary)• High School AP• Middle School AP• Elementary AP• USEP Representative• School Social Worker (Itinerant)• School Social Worker (School Based)• School Nurse• School Counselor• School Psychologist• SSAP Teacher• Information Services Representative• OSSPS Supervisor – ESE Division• Classroom Teacher (High School)• Classroom Teacher (Elementary)

Recommendation #2Data Analysis and PS with Schools

Barriers• Defining attendance (How is

attendance defined for data-informed decisions and balanced with state definitions)

• Recording attendance with respect to data quality

• Accessing data (data team – who)• Using data and a problem-solving

process to inform interventions• Monitoring effectiveness• Other?

Solutions (for Discussion)• Definition• Data Quality Expectations• Accessibility (Pasco Star)• Matching Interventions• Monitoring Interventions

Another District Example- Background

• District exploration began as parallel work to EWS development with the District Leadership Team – Questions about attendance/CA as Tier 1 issue

and need for more data to effectively problem-solve

District Attendance Example

School Example- Background• Request for support resulted from EWS

presentation and school guidance counselors perceived need

School Example Continued

• Met with the problem solving team• Reviewed multiple sources of data

– Attendance (Early Warning Systems)– Gallup Poll results– Teacher and Student Surveys– Student Interviews – Tier III Students

• Problem-Solving Process to:– Identify Problem using data– Develop hypotheses and analyze the data– Develop action plans

Data Summary

Data Summary Continued

Small Group Planning and Problem-Solving

Small Group Planning and Problem-Solving

Resources• Publications, tools, webinars, videos, resources

http://www.attendanceworks.org/• NYC Mayor Interagency Truancy Task Force

http://www.nyc.gov/html/truancy/html/school/school.shtmlToolkithttp://

www.nyc.gov/html/truancy/html/resources/publications.shtmlCreating Success Mentors Programhttp://

www.nyc.gov/html/truancy/downloads/pdf/creating-an-internal-success-mentor-corps.pdf

• Balfanz & Byrnes 2012 Publicationhttps://

ct.global.ssl.fastly.net/media/W1siZiIsIjIwMTQvMDgvMTUvMjE1dnkya3BzOF9GSU5BTENocm9uaWNBYnNlbnRlZWlzbVJlcG9ydF9NYXkxNi5wZGYiXV0/FINALChronicAbsenteeismReport_May16.pdf.pdf?sha=ffcb3d2b

• Everyone Graduates Center http://www.every1graduates.org/

Student and Teacher Survey Organized Around Balfanz’s 3 Reasons

Attendance Works- School Self Assessment

http://www.attendanceworks.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/School-Self-Assessment-Team-Rev-June-2012.pdf

Student Thoughts on Attendance

• http://www.nyc.gov/html/truancy/html/news/student-produced-videos.shtml

What is your role in combating 292, 297?

82,300

88,548 65,890

54, 559 out of 76,100

Additional ReadingsAllensworth, E. M., & Easton, J. Q. (2005). The on-track indicator as a predictor of high school

graduation. Consortium on Chicago School Research, University of Chicago. Retrieved from http://ccsr.uchicago.edu/publications/p78.pdf

Allensworth, E. M., & Easton, J. Q. (2007). What matters for staying on track and graduating in Chicago public high schools. Consortium on Chicago School Research, University of Chicago. Retrieved from http://ccsr.uchicago.edu/publications/07%20What%20Matters%20Final.pdf

Allesnworth, E. M., Gwynne, J. A., Moore, P., & de la Torre, M. (2014). Looking forward to high school and college Middle grades indicators of readiness in Chicago public schools. Consortium on Chicago School Research, University of Chicago. Retrieved from https://ccsr.uchicago.edu/sites/default/files/publications/Middle%20Grades%20Report.pdf

American Bar Association Commission on Youth At-risk. 2012. Legal and educational system solutions for youth: Report from a Leadership and Policy Forum on Truancy andDropout Prevention. Retrieved from http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/publications/center_on_children_and_the_law/youth_at_risk/truancy_dropout_report.authcheckdam.pdf

Balfanz, R., & Byrnes, V. (2012). Chronic Absenteeism: Summarizing What We Know From Nationally Available Data. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Center for Social Organization of Schools.

Balfanz, R., Herzog, L., MacIver, D., (2007). Preventing student disengagement and keeping students on the graduation path in urban middle-grades schools: Early identification and effective interventions. Educational Psychologist, 42(4), 223-235.

Additional Readings ContinuedChang, Hedy N. & Romero, Mariajosé 2008. Present, engaged and accounted for the

critical importance of addressing chronic absence in the early grades. National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP): The Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.

Connolly, F. & Olson, L. S. 2012. Early elementary performance and attendance in Baltimore City Schools’ pre-kindergarten and kindergarten. Baltimore Education Research Consortium, Baltimore, MD.

Henderson, T., Hill, C. & Norton, K. 2014. The connection between missing school and health: A review of chronic absenteeism and student health in Oregon. Upstream Public Health.

John W. Gardner Center for Youth and their Communities, Stanford University. (2014). Menu of college readiness indicators and supports. College Readiness Indicator Systems Resource Series. Seattle, WA: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

National High School Center. (2012). National high school center early warning system middle grades tool technical manual. Washington, DC: Author. Retrieved from http://www.betterhighschools.org/documents/NHSC_EWSMiddleGradesTechManual.pdf

Olson, L. S., 2014. Why September matters: Improving student attendance. Baltimore Education Research Consortium, Baltimore, MD. Retrieved from : http://baltimore-berc.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/SeptemberAttendanceBriefJuly2014.pdf

Contact Information

Amber BrundagePK-12 Alignment Unit Coordinatorabrundage@usf.edu

Facilitated Session

Download both the district and school 21+ Data

• http://www.fldoe.org/accountability/data-sys/edu-info-accountability-services/pk-12-public-school-data-pubs-reports/students.stml