Rocky View Schools are doing their part to combat chronic absenteeism in the school division.

Mitchell Colp is the Project Lead for the school division's Attendance Innovation Campaign, which is currently in its pilot phase at schools in Airdrie and Beiseker.

Colp said when the Rocky View started looking at the number of students that were considered chronically absent, it raised alarms. According to Colp, the average in North America is between 10 and 15 percent. The number in Rocky View was much higher.

"What we found when we looked at our numbers was that we were sitting at about 20 percent, give or take, number of kids that were chronically absent, which means that they were missing eighteen or more instructional days, which has an at risk characteristic and can impact their success in the future."

The Attendance Innovation Campaign is built on three pillars: Educating communities about the importance of attendance, Using data to inform practices by standardizing how schools are tracking attendance, and removing barriers such as poverty, mental health and transportation.

Since implementing the initiative in September 2016, the number of chronically absent students at the pilot schools has dropped. Colp said they did a comparison of the number of chronically absent students from September to January of last school year, and the same time span this year.

"What we had originally was about 202 students who were chronically absent in our pilot schools up until that point last year. This year, we've reduced that number from 202 to 20."

There are many facets to the initiative, but Colp said one key for success is maintaining a personal connection between students and the school. In September, teachers telephoned a number of their students to introduce themselves, and keep that connection through follow-up calls when students are absent.

"If we are calling families about attendance concerns, we really just want to say, 'Hi, we really miss your son or daughter. We really want them to come back and I just want to know, is there anything that we at the school maybe can help you with?'"

 

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