Testimony Before the DC Council Committee of the Whole at the Public Hearing on Student Absenteeism and Discipline
By Nicole Travers, Senior Director of School Support & Program Data, DC Charter School Alliance
Good afternoon, Chairman Mendelson and members of the Committee. My name is Nicole Travers, and I am the Senior Director of School Support & Program Data at the DC Charter School Alliance, the local non-profit that advocates on behalf of public charter schools to ensure that every student can choose high-quality public schools that prepare them for lifelong success.
Our priority is to make sure students are in class as much as possible, and that those who require more support have their needs met –– a goal that I know we all share. That’s why we appreciate the Council for continuing to spotlight attendance issues and bringing us together to find ways to address them. We know there are many reasons why a student might be absent, from mental health challenges to instability at home. But at the same time, we also know that children who are chronically absent in preschool, kindergarten, and first grade are much less likely to read at grade level by third grade, and students who cannot read a grade level by the end of third grade are four times more likely to drop out of high school. Furthermore, dropping out of high school has been linked to poor outcomes later in life, from poverty and diminished health to involvement in the criminal justice system (1).
Charter schools are taking a number of steps to address chronic absenteeism and truancy. Maintaining relationships with families and engaging them regularly is critical to learning about factors preventing students from attending regularly and how we can address those barriers. In fact, before a student reaches the truancy referral threshold, caregivers are made aware of the problem multiple times. Typically, caregivers receive a letter after three unexcused absences; the school holds a meeting with them after five absences; and they receive another letter at eight absences. Throughout this process, most schools are also engaging with families by other methods, including texts and phone calls. At 10 or 15 days, depending on the student's age, schools then make referrals, as required by law, to the Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA) or Child Support Services (CSS).
Beyond engaging families and making referrals to the appropriate agencies, schools are also developing individualized intervention plans in the summer to support students who had attendance issues in the previous school year. For example, many schools conduct home visits in the summer to build a plan with the family for the upcoming year, and that family engagement often continues throughout the school year. And, during the summer, schools are working hard to prepare for the upcoming school year, including hiring support teams, making partnerships with community-based organizations to develop protocols for interacting with students during the year, revising student handbooks with updated policies, and training support staff and leadership teams.
The Administrative Burden on Schools
What schools are already doing is critical to consider for any new legislation to address chronic absenteeism and truancy, particularly in the referral process. Right now, schools put enormous energy and effort into referrals when a student reaches the truancy referral threshold.
We urge the Council not to implement significant changes to referral procedures just weeks before the school year starts without adequate time for schools to understand the changes and revise internal data systems, policies, and procedures. Additionally, schools would have to identify any additional staffing needs and train staff on new procedures. School leaders have already set their budgets and staffing plans for the upcoming school year, so new changes will likely require them to pull staff away to focus on changes, taking away from other academic priorities. We urge you to ensure that adequate planning time is provided to schools to implement any significant changes.
And, any legislation passed that includes new required referrals should not fall on schools. Charter schools work very hard to intervene and support students before they meet the threshold for external referrals. After they’ve made the initial truancy referral to CFSA, CSS, or DHS, those agencies should provide case management and make any additional necessary referrals, rather than requiring schools to manage multiple referrals at separate agencies.
Limited Capacity for Services Helping At-Risk Students Return to School
I want to be clear: our schools understand that students missing valuable class time is an enormous crisis. They want to and expect to be part of the solution. However, any new burdens or changes should be limited, practical, and likely to yield results.
That’s why we’re concerned that most of the legislative proposals before us today focus on adding or changing reporting requirements that ultimately will place more burdens on schools, but do not consider solutions that will increase the capacity to provide families with the support they need after a student has reached the truancy referral threshold.
For example, many families are unhoused, dealing with childcare issues, or simply don’t have enough food on the table to meet their basic needs. Schools say, and our own District study reveals, that unstable housing is the primary driver of truancy. We applaud Councilmember Robert White for seeking to address this issue by adding housing vouchers with case management only open to families to decrease homelessness and address truancy.
These are issues that our schools are not equipped to address. Regardless of what agency is responsible for intervention once a referral is made, we need legislation to clearly define what support families will receive after their child reaches the absence threshold. In other words, the safety net must kick in.
That means that every student referred should receive a family support assessment to determine whether they need housing, are having trouble paying utility bills, are considered food insecure, or need childcare, among other basic needs. Then, the receiving agency should open a case, put together a package of services and interventions, and provide ongoing case management.
Fortunately, we already have several truancy intervention programs, such as the Parent and Adolescent Support Services (PASS) Intensive Case Management program, the Alternatives to the Court Experience (ACE) Diversion Program, and the Abating Truancy Through Engagement and Negotiated Dialogue (ATTEND) Mediation Program, to help connect students and families with the safety net they need to address the underlying causes of absenteeism and truancy.
Unfortunately, these programs suffer from capacity limitations. Instead of primarily focusing on legislation that addresses administrative processes and reporting changes, we urge the Council to consider adding slots to these existing and effective truancy intervention programs. If we don’t actually provide the services students need to address the underlying causes, making major system changes won’t solve the problem.
Moving Forward
Our schools want to be part of the solution. Chronic absenteeism and truancy are complicated, but urgent issues that require an all-hands-on-deck approach. Truly, it takes a village to raise a child. Our school leaders are deeply committed to working alongside the Council and the city to address these challenges, and many of them will testify today and share innovative examples of how they are creatively taking them on. The DC Alliance is ready to continue our partnership with you and the Administration to ensure students have their needs met and are in classrooms to consistently engage in learning.
Thank you for your time and attention, and I welcome your questions.
Citations
U.S. Department of Education. Chronic Absenteeism in the Nation’s Schools. June 7, 2016 (Updated January 2019). https://www2.ed.gov/datastory/chronicabsenteeism.html
