DCSD social workers trying to curb chronic absenteeism
By Melissa Rollins, Editor, editor@newsandpress.net
Many teachers will tell you that there are challenges to overcome in order to reach students educational needs when they have some many other things going on in their lives. Sometimes the struggle is simply getting them to school to begin with. Sue Ingram, the lead social worker for Darlington County School District, recently shared with the DCSD Board of Education about the effort that social workers are taking in the district to curb chronic absenteeism in elementary schools, a growing problem all across the country.
“A lot of schools think that 95 percent of average daily attendance is good,” Ingram said. “Research has shown that it’s not great, that we should be at 97 percent or higher. Currently, Darlington is at 95.38 percent.”
Chronic absenteeism, defined in a brief from Attendance Works and the Child & Family Policy Center as missing ten percent or more of the school days in a given year for any reason, can often be a sign that a student is at a greater risk for not completing school.
Ingram said that the brief, entitled Chronic Absenteeism: A Problem Hidden in Plain Sight, talks about the many issues surrounding students who are frequently absent.
“The article goes on to say that regardless of a child’s socio-economic level, if they are missing ten percent of school that is an early indicator to us that we need to get in there and we need to start working a whole lot earlier with our younger students and parents,” Ingram said.
Knowing that absences are a red flag, Ingram said that the social workers in Darlington County Schools are working to catch students before it becomes an issue.
“This year we have done some attendance interventions with a few of our 4K parents and they were a little appalled that we would call them because their child is only 4-years-old and in 4K and we were calling for an attendance intervention plan,” Ingram said. “Yes, we are. And we are continuing to tell the social workers to bring in those 4-year-olds and those 5-year-olds.”
Interventions are one way DCSD is trying to curb absences, making sure that parents understand the impact that missing school can have on their child years down the road.
“It is important that we get this early because by the time that they are in middle school and they’ve missed 10, 20, 30 days of school a year, their rate of dropping out of school increases and they aren’t ready for high school,” Ingram said. “Then the high schools are struggling to hold on to them. We know if they miss ten days, whether excused or unexcused, they are in jeopardy of not getting credit in that school year.”
With research showing that having 97 percent average daily attendance rate is what districts and schools should shoot for, Ingram said that that is exactly what DCSD is doing.
“We are going to strive for that 97 percent because it is important that these children are in school every single day, even in 4K,” Ingram said. “I think sometimes parents think 4K is daycare but it’s not; its school. We want to be proactive. I am going to get the social workers to work at little harder at the beginning of the school year to get letters out to parents and send them the data. They need to know why it’s important for them to get their children to school every day.”