WCSD: Too many absences could mean being held back a grade

Siobhan McAndrew | Reno Gazette-Journal

Show Caption Hide Caption Watch: Mount Rose Elementary School kids talk about their first week back in class Mount Rose Elementary School children talk about returning to school in 2017 and what they learned during the first week.

One bout of pinkeye and a half day at the dentist could mean repeating first grade.

The Washoe County School District is stressing the importance of attendance under stricter guidelines from the Nevada Department of Education.

It's as little as two days every month, even if a child is really sick, to put them at risk of being held back a grade, school officials said.

“We are trying to get the word out right now as far as it could lead to retention or course failure," said Deputy Superintendent Kristen McNeill.

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A student is considered chronically absent and at risk of being held back a grade by missing 17 or more days of school without making up missed work within a set amount of time.

The Washoe County School Board policy states that, "students must not be absent 10 percent or more of school days in elementary or middle school or they will be retained or fail the course in high school no matter what the student's academic marks in the grade or course may be."

It comes as nearly one in five Washoe County students was chronically absent from school last year.

Of the district's 64,000 students, more than 12,000 missed nearly a month or more or school during the 2017-18 school year. Of the district's thousands of students who were chronically absent, 60 percent miss between 17 and 27 days of school.

The new guidelines and stricter rules are in effect for the new school year. The district said it is working toward reducing last year's 19 percent chronic absenteeism rate to 17 percent this school year.

A breakdown of attendance by school for 2017-18 will not be available until later this year.

Based on 2016-17 numbers, many schools had well over the district average. At Hug High School, nearly one in three students was chronically absent. At Natchez Elementary School, one in four students was chronically absent in 2016-17.

Tougher rules

New rules include counting all absences, including for medical reasons, as part of the 17-day rule. Missing half a day of school now is marked as a full day absence.

The district did say that with the stricter rules, principals and teachers will still have the final call on promoting a student to the next grade if he or she was chronically absent depending on individual extenuating circumstances.

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But the district stressed it is up to families and students to approach teachers about making up the missed work immediately after being out, even if a student has been sick.

The district said it is trying to educate parents and students about making up missed work, even if they are out for one day because of an illness.

Chronic absenteeism to be counted in school rank

The Nevada Department of Education told districts earlier this year that chronic absenteeism would be a factor in school evaluations. It will be part of the ranking system the state will release later this year.

“We know when students miss school, no matter the reason, they are missing content,” said Amber Reid of the Nevada Department of Education.

She said there are direct correlations between students who miss school and graduation rates.

The state and district said the new data will allow better tracking of students and the ability to help students who do miss school for things such as transportation, medical care or family problems.

"A chronically absent student isn't just a prototypically chronically absent student," said the district’s chief accountability officer, Ben Hayes.

Hayes said there are a lot of different ways a student can be counted as chronically absent, ranging from illness or family emergency to family vacations in Europe and homelessness.

At a school board meeting in July, Chief Student Services Officer Byron Green said chronic absenteeism is a complicated issue and the district will look at data to see if students need medical care and if that is a factor for why students are not getting to school.

Green said the district is working on piloting programs to bring health care to students including with Renown Regional Medical Center to start a telemedicine program.

"We are very excited this next year that we can start looking at the data to see how many of our chronic absentee students maybe need medical assistance that we can even provide at some of our campuses," Green said.

WCSD says every time your child is absent:

Within three days of the absence, parents or guardians must call or sent a note to the school.

Students should ask for make-up work and teachers may proactively provide it to them. Students must receive the make-up work within two days of the absence.

Make-up work must be completed within the number of schools a student is absent, plus one day.

Once the make-up work is completed and turned in, the absence will no longer count towards chronic absenteeism or retention or failure.

More info on attendance is available on the WCSD website here.

This story has been updated online to include comments from a Washoe County School Board meeting.