Warwick School Absenteeism and Civic Presence
Engaging students with school and community are challenges undertaken in various ways at Warwick Valley School District
As skipping school becomes a post-coronavirus pandemic, media bemoan widespread “chronic absenteeism,” defined as missing 10% of the school year, meaning 18 or more school days. The American Enterprise Institute found a 26% rate of the phenomenon nationally, a doubling of the 13% average in 2019-20. A New York Times story identified an inclination to feel that school is “optional,” since days of pandemic “remote learning,” which left many students academically behind.
While Warwick Valley elementary and middle school students had a chronic absenteeism rate of 19.2% in 2022-23, in Warwick Valley High School, chronic absenteeism was at 34.8%, with the highest level, 43.9%, among the 280 economically disadvantaged students, lowest among the 53 Black students, at 18.9%, and the 962 White students had a 34.2% rate, according to the New York State Department of Education.
“The feeling that school is optional is problematic in the high school,” said Warwick Valley Central Schools Superintendent Dr. David Leach. “We have work to do to impress on students the need for school.”
The causes of absences are many, he said, so the district has a multifaceted approach. He listed mental health, bullying, weather, responsibilities outside school and parents not understanding the importance of attendance, as common reasons for absence.
“No one size fits all,” said Leach. “A task force looks at the previous year’s statistics, and we adjust the approach accordingly.”
Counselors or administrators call the absent student’s home and, as appropriate, connect them with the school medical director or social services. Warwick is one of a few school districts in the county with an Orange County Department of Mental Health Services satellite office in each school, said Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Meghan McGourty. The county provides a counselor who rotates between schools.
“She’s exceptionally busy,” McGourty said. “Every slot is filled.”
The district’s mental health staff has grown over several years, with the addition of mental health counselors, two more guidance counselors and two psychologists, Leach said.
Following quarterly assessment of absenteeism, he said, their process is to monitor and “follow up assertively with calls and conferences. We find the cause, whether anxiety or health, and address it. What helps is that the high school first period schedule rotates, so students have different classes first period.”
With chronic absenteeism defined as 18 days in the school year, “You can get to 18 quick,” said McGourty. “If kids don’t feel good, they don’t go to school. With a family situation where they decide to keep kids at home, we work with families to be flexible and have a graduated approach to students coming back to school. During the pandemic, students who didn’t feel good didn’t go to school.”
While the group considered “economically disadvantaged” has a high rate of chronic absenteeism, McGourty notes that they are a relatively small portion of high school students, 280, or 20%, of 1,381 last year. But 43.9%, 123 of that group, were chronically absent, constituting 26% of the 480 high school students chronically absent.
“We make sure the economically disadvantaged kids have what they need,” said Leach. “We send tutors home and provide mental health counselors.”
“We have planned re-entry, and students have a voice in the matter,” said McGourty. “When kids have a sense of belonging from having friends in class and caring teachers, they’re more likely to come to school.”
“Students who are absent for an extended period of time are given the opportunity to meet with a school counselor, psychologist, administrator and/or teacher, to plan for their return to school,” said Leach. “The student is asked to discuss any concerns and how those can be addressed.” That could mean a modified schedule or more “support people.”
Attendance also improves during sports seasons,” he said. “Students must come to school to play.”
McGourty noted the appeal of options. “They have more choices in Warwick. They take an extra class, and as they get older they can take career and technology classes.”
As for helping students catch up with learning that had been interrupted by the pandemic, Leach pointed out that, during the pandemic,his goal was to keep schools open as much as possible, especially elementary schools.
“We had to get kindergarten through third grade kids in daily and keep them separated. You can’t teach them on a screen. We opened secondary schools mid-March. So we’re seeing less learning loss.”
More opportunities for remediation are in motion. Before the pandemic, if Warwick students went to summer school, they attended in other districts. But for the past three summers, 300 students, first through 12th grade, have attended summer school in Warwick, Leach said.
“At the primary level, focus has been on literacy, with phonics and speech decoding.We have more tutoring, after school programming and AIS (academic intervention services),” he said. “The graduation rate is high.”
The four-year graduation rate for 2022-23 was 95%, while the state average was 86%, according to the New York State Education Department Report Card.
However, asked about the direction of absenteeism numbers, Leach said, “We’re maintaining and increasing enrollment, but I expect about the same percentage of absenteeism this year as last year.”
Civic Presence
Changes in school curriculum summon more optimism.
“The curriculum is ever-evolving,” said McGourty. “We don’t just unbox it and use it in perpetuity.”
She described the “shifting science curriculum” for third through eighth grade, involving four sets of hands-on, three-dimensional investigations in third through fifth grade and another four in sixth through eighth grade.
“It’s more hands on and experimental,” she said. “It wasn’t mandated until this year, but we started earlier.”
Education research has found that these physical explorations of a subject result in more comprehensive, enduring understanding. The move to action-based learning also involved elimination of parts of the curriculum, McGourty said, for example, sections of the earth science course on some aspects of rocks.
The emphasis on engagement also changed eighth grade social studies. Each student chooses an issue to explore and finds remedies to address it, for instance the need for a drinking fountain. The class is interdisciplinary, social studies and English, so writing is a focus.
In middle school and high school, students can pursue the New York State Seal of Civic Readiness, another action and engagement oriented educational path. To earn the Seal, students complete high school diploma requirements and earn two points in Civic Knowledge, two points in Civic Readiness and two points in Civic Participation, which involve service learning, service projects and engagement with participatory government. Points can also come from a middle or high school Capstone project. These requirements involve understanding and engaging in real world civic activities and projects. Last year, 55 students, 17% of seniors, received the seal.
Leach also ticked off extracurricular civic activities that some students do, such as mock trials, model U.N. and the Prevention Coalition.
As for voting, he said, “Kids register to vote in history class, and they’re encouraged to vote. We give them practical knowledge of history and have them wrestle with it in an age appropriate way, engaging in problem based learning. We romanticize the past, but kids are equipped for change by the curriculum. I think we’re in great hands. They’re concerned about war, the environment and divisive politics.”
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