Illnesses, skipping and having a family emergency are among the top reasons students in Central Texas miss school, according to new data released June 11 at the Missing School Matters Attendance Summit presented by Children's Optimal Health and the Austin-based nonprofit organization E3 Alliance.
E3, a regional, data-driven education collaborative that aims to improve education and in turn drive economic prosperity, surveyed nine schools in Pflugerville ISD and Hays CISD using a group that was representative of all of Central Texas in terms of ethnicity and economic status, according to Senior Education Researcher Amy Wiseman. There were 16,800 student absences in those nine schools during an eight-week period from Jan. 14 to March 8, 2013, she said.
"Going into this, we had already looked in detail at the actual attendance patterns in Central Texas, but what we didn't know was why we were seeing these absences, and so that's what ultimately led to this study," Wiseman said.
The top 10 reported reasons for absences were:
- Acute illness
- Skipping
- Chronic illness
- Family emergency
- Routine dental appointment
- Preventative medical
- Travel
- Mental health issue (non-crisis mental health)
- Out-of-school suspension
- Family responsibility (such as a child staying home to take care of younger siblings)
Attendees were invited to share their feedback and discuss what they thought of the findings.
Less commonly cited reasons included asthma, college visits, court appearances, a student's child being sick and transportation issues such as a car breaking down or a student missing the bus.
"I was pleasantly surprised at first to see that the transportation numbers were so low. ... But I think it would be different in Austin than in Pflugerville," said John-Michael Cortez, Austin Community College trustee and Capital Metro community involvement manager. He said he would be interested to see additional studies involving other school districts such as Austin, where students might have greater transportation challenges such as only having access to one family car.
Acute illness made up 8,124 of the absences, Wiseman said. Attendee Vanessa Sarria, executive director of Community Action Network, which works to improve local social, health, educational and economic opportunities, suggested that the region should focus on health-related campaigns and messaging concerning flu prevention in schools, workplaces and out-of-school programs.
The study also examined student populations, revealing that students who are at risk of dropping out of school have more absences than the rest of the student population. E3 concluded that at-risk students are among the populations on which the community should focus, along with students with chronic absenteeism—missing 10 percent or more of the days in a course.
To decrease absenteeism among at-risk students, Nancy Oelklaus, vice president of program planning for The League of Women Voters of the Austin Area, said the community should consider a campaign to investigate at-risk student culture and emphasize the importance of attendance to that subgroup's future. She pointed to other campaigns that have prompted behavioral shifts, such as the anti-litter campaign Don't Mess With Texas.
"Maybe a solution is as simple as a slogan or a set of slogans ... that raises people's awareness," she said.
E3 hopes to boost attendance by 2 percentage points overall in Austin ISD and 11 other Central Texas districts, E3 Executive Director Susan Dawson said. The organization recently launched a task force for Missing School Matters, its regionwide campaign to increase awareness of the importance of attendance in terms of both school funding and student achievement.
"We know that missing school correlates directly with poor academic outcomes," Dawson said.
The MSM absence reasons presentation is available online at www.e3alliance.org.
Photo by Kelli Weldon
