October Board of Ed: chronic absenteeism

 Riley reviews recent headlines
"almost one in four Massachusetts children missed 18 days or more of school last year"

teachers having been working incredibly hard
most significant drop in chronic absenteeism of all states 
"intend to issue an awareness campaign"
"we recognize that partnership with families"
deeper conversations about how we can all work together
announcing "decided not to name any underperforming or chronically underperforming schools" for this year
"while these designations have served us well in the past," need a collaborative approach
plan to highlight three-quarters of schools with challenges with attendance
$4M from state for this work; work of all
"to be compassionate and creative in bringing students back to school"
know that students have chronic conditions, that children get sick
"believe the break in routine of school going culture" is the cause

Dr: asks how many days of school missed in the past two months
student who misses schools due to caring for family members
"severe headaches and sleep improved when he goes to school" (?)
another: felt safe at school, could identify trusted adults
"positive bi-directional feedback loop when students feel safe at school and are at school"
importance of school nurses: consider that access to health services is available through the nurse (I am not sure that this how this office is viewed by the districts)
another dr: graduate healthy adults is the goal
"pick up on the thread of routine"
students fed at school

interruption from me: note that nowhere here has anyone said "and we're going to listen to families as to why they're not sending students to school." They're saying "we are SURE that families 'fell out of a routine' and we just need to MESSAGE that need to send those kids in to school."
This is doomed to failure.

Dr: mental health, which was true before the pandemic, particularly challenging due to lack of access
more school you miss, the more difficult it is to catch up

Craven: how real time does the Department get attendance records
Curtin: for the most part, we get it daily
Hills: trying to interpret...nobody here has an issue with looking at the data
"should your focus as a department be on working with districts"
Curtin: able to track it on a pretty routine basis to see where we're standing during the school year
communicate with districts to ensure they're using the data that they have in their hands in the best possible way
Riley: funding to communicate with families and have "those conversations with families"
"strongly considering bringing to the table an increase of chronic absenteeism in accountability"
Hills: need to have a conversation about the role of the accountability system
Craven: "if you're not in school you're clearly not learning at the rate you would if you were in school"
Riley: "we're approaching this as Maslow before Bloom"
"a call to action to everyone in the community"

West: have been talking about chronic absenteeism problem and rate
may be a useful indicator, but really there's no magic switch that goes on when a child hits 18 days absent
like that we're having this conversation: schools have often thought of absence as something largely outside their control; emergence of research on communication with families mattering
encourage Department to dig into research done 
how is non-declaring related and is it a one time shift?
Riley: I don't see as a permanent shift
"required given the nature of the problem"
West: don't see attendance as a reason not to make declaration as "schools do have agency" over attendance

Stewart: address issue with families in the room on Thursday
"great to get feedback; is there a plan to breakout on this topic?"
Riley: don't know if there is a breakout on this issue; I know I will address them
have never "woken the sleeping giant" of families
"the times come for it time"
Stewart: certainly puts families right in the center of this issue

Fisher encourage looking at ground level: families, wraparound coordinators, adjustment counselors
supporting those who are trained to deal with these issues
trepidation of weighting absenteeism heavier while supporting work with grant funding
"need to allows programs to work and support the folks on the ground before weighing the accountability system"

Moriarty: have been advocating for a very long time
communication and siloing are the two issues, he says
world of difference between enforcing truancy laws and chronic absenteeism
chronically absent by percentage (can happen early in year)
doesn't care about excused or non-excused
"where I want to see consequences fall is for school districts that throw up their hands" and don't think that they can do anything

Hills: really want to urge everyone to make sure that before something is submitted, there's "bringing the Board along" so that it doesn't needlessly devolve into conversation
"this isn't about team building"
"managing a process intelligently and respectfully"
Riley says he is open to discussions at a meeting, as well

Craven: "the pausing"?
Riley: the system still ran, I am simply not declaring schools underperforming or chronically underperforming
Hills: it was said"we're labelling schools" and we shouldn't be doing that, which I agree with
"if the problem is we're labelling schools, let's not do that"
"don't just assume everyone is at that same point"
(nope, still have no idea what he is talking about)
Riley: this is the most important thing we can do; need to focus on this
money on communication, recovery academies, "put skin in the game"

Mohamed: something the Commissioner see as an indicator of how kids are doing
one thing that would be helpful..."there are many reasons for chronic absenteeism...I don't know if we have a way of teasing them out"
"do we talk to families...are there different baskets"
"we haven't had that sort of discussion here"
"How are you conceptualizing...districts think through that"
"different causes"
Riley: a really complicated question, so many factors that go into chronic absenteeism
"I think what we're starting do at DESE...to try to work with districts and superintendents around this issue"
so, we aren't going to talk to families, then
Craven: what are we going to do to solve the problem
Riley: "it's all about the execution"
if a child is out with COVID, hits chronically absent early in the year, has the district spoken with the family about it so we're not at day 14 in June

Tutwiler: outreach to the community
because I believe very deeply in this initiative from experience as a superintendent
"Every student, every day" in Lynn