Grand Forks schools crack down on epidemic of absenteeism
The negative effects of closing down schools in favor of online classrooms due to a COVID-19 virus that posed little threat to students continue to be all too apparent. Most notable, a lost year of learning for many and increased behavior problems once classes resumed.
But the disruption of in-person instruction led to another issue that also stubbornly refuses to go away — a shocking increase in chronic absenteeism. Since the pandemic, the Grand Forks Herald notes that the number of students skipping classes at the city’s two high schools has skyrocketed.
Rates of chronic absenteeism – when students miss more than 10% of the school days in an academic year – have climbed at the two Grand Forks high schools since 2020.
Thirty-seven percent of Red River students were chronically absent during the 2022-23 school year, according to the state Department of Public Instruction, up from 18% in 2020-21.
At Central, 47% of students were chronically absent in 2022-23, down from the year before but up by 16 percentage points since 2020-21.
Not surprisingly, students who skip school fall ever further behind academically and need additional help to catch up. It results in a domino effect that puts more pressure on the entire system.
The rise in absenteeism has also dovetailed with declining academic performance: four-year graduation rates are down for both high schools since 2020-21, though they remain higher than the state average.
More students are failing classes and needing to make up course credits, Arason said, which has driven the schools to implement or expand academic intervention programs like school-within-school and the district-run SAIL Center.
“We’ve implemented quite a few interventions for these kids because, bottom line is, as many kids are failing classes, we don’t have space to put them all back in,” he told the Herald. “So we’ve had to come up with different types of interventions and catch-up methods that we didn’t use before COVID.”
As a result, this fall both Grand Forks high schools implemented an experimental intervention program targeting students who routinely skip school. The plan includes getting parents to buy into it from the start and notifying them of chronic absences early on.
Under the absenteeism intervention plan, students and parents will be asked to sign an attendance contract after 12 absences (though signatures aren’t actually required for the “contract” to be in effect).
From that point onward, students will not be given credit for any work assigned or due on a day they are absent. Medical notes signed by a doctor and school-sponsored activities are the only absences that will not count against the tally.
After 18 absences, students will be dropped from the class they’ve missed, with a possible option for online coursework to complete the class.
The pilot program has the widespread support of Grand Forks teachers and school board members. If successful, it may be expanded to other schools in the district.
“Our goal at this point is to make sure parents and guardians are aware of this policy, and letting everyone know we’re going to do everything within our control as a school and a building to help this absenteeism battle,” said Katie Arthur, Central’s director of interventions.