Montgomery County Public Schools developing plan to address above average truancy rates
WASHINGTON - As the academic year comes to a close for students in Montgomery County Public Schools, new numbers showing just how many students are skipping class have district leaders concerned.
A meeting to address the problem has been pushed back to next month as officials try to address an epidemic of cutting schools.
District-wide, Montgomery County Public Schools are seeing a 26.2% chronic absenteeism rate across the district and the problem reaches across the economic landscape. For example, Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School has a 28.6% absenteeism rate, which is higher than average, while Kennedy High School in Wheaton is at 54.7%
MCPS says it defines chronic absenteeism as 10% or greater absences of the days enrolled, regardless of the reason. That equates to 18 or more days in a complete school year.
At a meeting on this problem last month, school board members said MCPS needs to address this issue of keeping kids in school.
"We’ll keep trying and until then we need to do everything we can to make sure all of our students have the opportunity to graduate in four years if possible and the best way to do that way to do that is by showing up," said board member Rebecca Smondrowski.
In a statement to FOX 5, MCPS says it’s "committed to identifying strategies and actions to address student absenteeism."
MCPS says using student focus groups, they conducted an evaluation to better understand what’s behind the troubling data. They say key themes that emerged were:
- Students got very comfortable taking classes at home during the pandemic, and it has been very difficult to return to in-person instruction.
- Better teacher-student relationships would increase students’ motivation to attend school.
- Students feel they need breaks from the academic stress of school, including regularly-scheduled mental health days or days designed to simply catch up.
- In-person instruction during the day does not work for all students, many of whom have to work or have other family responsibilities.
An action plan has been drafted, according to MCPS, and the district says it’s developing an "intervention and accountability model" to encourage high school students to attend class.
Additionally, they say they will be conducting a "root cause analysis" at schools with high chronic absenteeism rates, implementing interventions and looking at alternative learning options for students that find traditional instruction challenging.