SC education leaders to conduct chronic absenteeism study. How bad is the problem?

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) — Education leaders in South Carolina are working to tackle chronic absenteeism in schools. This is when a child is absent for at least 10% of the school year, which is about 18 days for most students. It’s also an issue that has been exacerbated by the pandemic.

Schools are required to report the number of students considered chronically absent. During the 2018-2019 school year, data from several Lowcountry school districts shows fewer students were chronically absent compared to the 2022-2023 school year.

Tenell Felder, Communications Manager for the South Carolina Education Oversight Committee, said research has indicated that after the pandemic, parents have been more likely to allow their children to stay home from school. She also adds that there may be some misperceptions about attendance. Felder stressed that students can be considered chronically absent even if the absence is excused, and said that students must attend class at least half of the day to be considered present for that day.

However, Felder said other reasons are contributing to the trends, and the Education Oversight Committee is working to learn more through a study with students.

“We’ll be hosting a few different focus groups with high school students around the state who attend South Carolina public schools asking them about their experiences with chronic absenteeism,” she explained. “We’re hoping that from this study we can gain insight into factors that contribute to chronic absenteeism specifically for high school students — for older students — and hopefully make some recommendations that can assist teachers, students, community members and helping students to prioritize being at school.”

Felder said the study is important to the committee because of the negative impacts chronic absenteeism can have on student achievement.

“It appears that students that are chronically absent even starting as early as Pre-K or first grade or kindergarten that they are significantly less likely to read at grade level by the third grade,” she said. “Then you take that information and you see that students that fall into that category are three times more likely to drop out of high school.”

Local school districts are also taking action. Charleston County School District leaders have created new initiatives including a campaign during September, which is Attendance Awareness Month. The football-themed campaign called ‘Touchdown to Attendance’ encourages students to be present and gives shoutouts to schools with strong attendance numbers. The district also has a task force that is working to create similar campaigns in the future, and district leaders created a staff position that is focused on improving attendance issues.

“This position is that people would do more home visits — go to the home — so then they can identify those barriers that are prohibiting students to come to school,” said Talecia Drayton, Charleston County School District’s Director of School Attendance and Discipline Services. “Then once we identify those barriers we link them with resources that we have in our district and if not in our district then outside of our district.”

The chronic absenteeism numbers from the 2023-2024 school year are expected to be available by the end of 2024. The Education Oversight Committee hopes to have its report by early to mid-November.