Facts, Fallacies, and Straight Talk
By Dennis Barlow
Information and misinformation regarding attendance regulations in Shenandoah County Public Schools are abounding. It is time to set the record straight and to consider our next steps regarding this important topic.
When covid hit and the authorities egregiously channeled our students into isolated and virtual learning environments, they set in motion social ills that are only now becoming clear to us. One of those results was that when schools finally re-opened, in-person attendance at schools took a major hit. While the decline was not numerically monumental, the detrimental impact was.
Attendance is a key indicator and predictor of future success – not only in academic achievement - but in becoming successful in almost any occupation. Businesses, universities and trade schools greatly value applicants who are reliable and dependable. Further, attendance is critical for a student to grasp key ideas and to relate to teachers and others as they strive to master academic, technical, and commercial concepts. It was very discouraging for us last year to learn that one of our schools had lost accreditation solely due to flagging attendance figures.
At that point, the Superintendent and her staff and administrators put on a “full-court press” to bring the issue directly to the attention of parents and other stakeholders. Public announcements were made, advisory groups brainstormed the challenge, and a new emphasis was attached to day-to-day regulations and operations aimed at restoring attendance figures higher than 90%. The culmination of those efforts led to putting a new program into effect after the Winter Break in 2023. As a result, by the end of the school year, all the schools in our district had attained the Level 1 attendance threshold; a remarkable turnaround.
At the beginning of school year 2024-25, a revised system was implemented. Here is how it was envisioned: students missing more than 10% attendance (the baseline for being chronically absent) were notified that they were considered in “Poor School Standing.” This group consisted of students who may have had excused or unexcused absences. The program was not seen as punitive; it was a way of identifying students who would need remediation to complete course work successfully, as well as to target and address poor behaviors which might be corrected.
Students so designated were not able to take part in school sponsored events (sports, dances, etc.) until they were no longer considered “chronically absent.” They were however, given the choice to join a program entitled the “After School Attendance Program,” (ASAP) which allowed students to make up the absences which they had accrued. The program allowed students, either before or after school, to work on school assignments which would effectively erase absent school days from their attendance status. Messages announcing the new program were sent out to parents on August 12, 2024, before the start of schools.
Since that time, Shenandoah County Public Schools have experienced further declines in absenteeism with a current attendance rate hovering in the 94% range. Thus the three “A” s: achievement, academics, and attendance are happily on the upswing in our county.
However, some parents have complained that the system is arbitrary in that it blurs differences between excused and unexcused absences, and others feel that barring students from school events is counterproductive. There is also a feeling among some SCPS personnel that the “10% attendance” program was proposed as a binary, “either-or” choice which made compromise and modifications difficult.
I believe the school board is eager to hear from Superintendent Sheppard and her staff in the near-term regarding plans to review and analyze the attendance regulations and operations. We will work closely with her to deliberate on enhancements to the system which will continue the dramatic improvements in our attendance rate, while at the same time considering ways of dealing with the challenges and impacts of involved students and parents.
Dennis Barlow
Chairman, Shenandoah County School Board
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