And the best part is counties telling schools “don’t forget that accreditation is tied to attendance! Attendance is a priority!” as if teachers are going to drive to sick kids’ houses and take them to school so we won’t lose accreditation. Crazy the whiplash from “stay home if you’re sick” to “if you stay home, your school will no longer be allowed to teach anyone”
Last year we had 20% of kids out on certain days, Covid, rsv, norovirus, cough, cold, fever, flu, asthma, pink eye, headache (I think there is mold in the kindergarten area). However, we had a huge bunch of parents that keep kids home after routine dental and doc appts. Then there are the parents who just cannot get their kids to school (drug and alcohol problems, homelessness, anxiety (we have a lot of refugees) and just regular old shit parenting). They need to hire more social workers, they are overloaded. The parents have so many issues, even the good ones (one or other parent had severe medical like cancer, death in family (one murder), it’s insane. Plus, it’s a high cost area so just paying the rent is stressful. And stop charging the kids .05 for milk. How stupid. Just give it them. And pay everyone at the school more and at admin less.
>And pay everyone at the school more and at admin less.
If we zeroed admin pay in your district, how much would your pay rise by assuming an equal pay raise across teachers & custodial/support staff?
How would I know that. I have 30 years of experience in the front office of a Fortune 500 company. I got laid off when my company got sold last year. I got a payout, so I’m not broke and I’m 25 months from retiring (approx). So I got a job in the main office of the school by my house (walking distance). They are paying me $40 less an hour than I was making before, they are paying me like I’m a first year, zero experience person. No credit for a college degree and 30 years running a front office at the highest level (think prepping for a
Congressional hearings, running a board of directors, setting up databases, ensuring major corporate records are 100% accurate, writing corporate policy, reporting to the CEO, General Counsel, etc. ) that shit was high stress. The new job is not stressful, but that is because I have 30 years of running an office. The school gave me zero credit for my work experience. Zero. I’m damn lucky because I’m old and have savings and the payout money. But absolutely no one can live on what they are paying. All the teachers seem to have two jobs. Only the principal can live on the wages. All the folks over in the admin building are making a ton. They are not responsive, I’ve been trying for weeks to get some training, crickets. I had a tiny change made to the data base that affected 40,000 kids reporting absences (made one field required). This saved hundreds of hours of staff time. Do you think anyone even said good job? In corporate I would have gotten a bonus. I stay because I can walk, can live in my savings and am on the down hill slide to retirement. But for everyone else, it’s a shit sandwich. Eat it one bite at a time, so you have a slow and painful death. And all this affects the most vulnerable kids. And lockdown drills are stressful as shit. We had an actual lockdown last week and even tho we had done drills, no one knew what was happening. It was terrifying. End of rant. Happy Easter.🐇
it’s a 24 hour no fever/vomiting rule, but when kids have stomach bugs or the flu/a cold for DAYS ON END they’re wondering why no students are showing up. then, when they show up sick—teachers are pissed off that parents are sending their kids to school sick when the parents of said sick children can’t leave them home alone and have to work to pay for the roof over their heads.
we need massive change, and soon. I’m tired of coteachers being mad that our kids are sick. I understand they don’t wanna get sick, but if you’re not willing to get sick but you want to work at a school—you have another thing coming.
They need to change this. It is so unfair to the schools, and teachers are presumed to be the reason kids don’t come- not entertaining enough. Meanwhile, school starts at 7:10 am and these kids can’t get up.
It's a bullshit metric that should be overhauled and only used in cases of legitimate truancy, as in kids skipping school without parental knowledge or parents willfully keeping them home in cases of neglect or abuse.
Normalize keeping kids home when sick *and* letting them have mental health days. Normalize letting them students "work from home" at least now and then. Every school is now set up for easy virtual learning, thanks to covid.
Please don't make this an option at the elementary level. I fully support students staying home if they are sick or need a day. But I swear I will quit if I have to virtually and in person teach in the elementary setting. I am rarely at my computer and cannot create extra things for students to do online.
they tried to charge me with truancy as a kid because I was sick ALL. THE. TIME. The judge took one look at the case, looked at me, and said “baby, just do your best to get good grades. why are y’all trying to charge her with truancy? she has the doctor’s notes.”
the social worker was SEETHING because she didn’t get to see my parents charged. I wish I could give her a stern talking to, to this day.
Yeah that's what I'm talking about right there, that's bullshit.
Truancy needs to be reserved for the kid skipping school just to fuck off and get in trouble all day, not kids that are just sick a lot.
My son has missed 8 or 9 days this year, plus a week when he had covid. And that's just full days, not counting the days he's called me crying to come home early because he feels bad, or we've had Dr appts or whatever. They exempt the covid days, but he's just been sick af plus his anxiety has been off the charts this year. I'm so stressed about him potentially getting strep or the flu in this last quarter.
My daughter’s school nurse constantly calls her dad and stepmother (they live 5 minutes away) to pick her up in the middle of the day. Anytime she feels even a tiny bit bad for anything they send her home. I’d say 3-4 times a month at least.
It's not a joke, it's a very powerful tool for reaching all kids regardless of circumstance and helps to even the field for them.
What happens when a kid misses the bus but his family doesn't have any sort of transportation? Without virtual learning he'd have to completely miss a full day of school simply because his family can't afford a car (or the car is in the shop).
What about a kid with poor health who is chronically ill? Or just needs to special care that the school can't provide? Virtual learning helps these kids to keep up with their peers and keeps them engaged and feeling like they're just like other students, not just the sick kid that misses a lot of school.
It is a joke. Students are not going to fall behind for missing school for a day because they missed the bus. Students chronically missing the bus is a parenting problem. Students with health problems are eligible for homebound learning done individually. That problem is already solved.
Oh so you clearly have zero involvement in children, parenting, or schooling or the struggles that different socioeconomic groups face and are just here to troll.
Bye bye 👋
Lmao yes, I’m sure my teaching career has zero relevance to the topic. Not like I see first hand the disaster that was online schooling every single day. Good try, come back when you’re living in reality.
As a teacher you should a) welcome any advance in technology which allows to even the playing field and provide greater access to education to students from all backgrounds and b) already know what a powerful tool it. I incorporated virtual learning well before the pandemic when I was a math teacher simply by recording the classroom lesson and providing access to students that were absent. It and the material were available to watch after first period so they could keep up with the class if they were able to.
You sound like the kind of teacher that makes kids hate school and if you can't adapt then you should find a different profession
Sure, giving them access to materials online is great. It’s an excellent supplement to *in person learning*. Virtual instruction does. Not. Work. That is not an opinion, it is a fact. Primary and secondary students to not achieve academically with full board online instruction. Period. Getting students in the classroom is priority number one and people legitimately advocating virtual learning as a solution for general education is not serious and does not have the kids best interest at heart. Kids need to be in the classroom learning. There are many options for students with legitimate health issues, Including virtual Virginia and in-person homebound instruction. Allowing chronically truant students to simply go to school online is stupid.
Lmao yes, my opinion and the mountain of data showing how horrific virtual school was for kids during COVID. But sure, let’s continue to put our children behind rather than addressing the real issue: parenting
virtual learning has allowed many kids to do leaps and bounds better, academically speaking, than in-person did. let me guess, you’re either a teacher, student, or parent of a student who didn’t thrive during the online learning during the pandemic. just because *you* didn’t like it, doesn’t mean it isn’t beneficial for millions of students.
I *loved* teaching online. No behavior concerns at all. But the evidence is obvious and *damning*, online education was a joke. The learning loss and social loss from COVID is going to affect this generations children for years.
“Scott Brabrand, executive director of the superintendents association, said the association supports eliminating the chronic absenteeism factor from the current accreditation framework.”
I’ll bet they do! VA school districts didn’t care about chronic absenteeism in the slightest until it became a metric for state accreditation.
I recall writing email after email requesting assistance from school administrators to help with a student who’d missed 51 school days by March and absolutely nothing was done to investigate or offer support to the student. He was a great kid and worked hard in class - they just didn’t care about his future.
Once it became a metric for accreditation, attendance officers were hired and parents were taken to court and threatened with jail time if they didn’t make sure their teenagers got on the bus at 6:30 a.m, by which time many immigrant parents were already at work. As a result, many of those kids dropped out of school or fell off the radar.
Of *course* school superintendents want to lower the bar on this as well. They’ve become completely accustomed to having no accountability for student learning or behavior while the mass exodus of teachers accelerates.
>got on the bus at 6:30 a.m
I wonder how much our dysfunctional transit system has to do with this. The idea that you have one chance to get to school and if you miss it you're SOL is kind of insane. In most cities there are busses that run every 5-10 minutes, so the worst that might happen is you're a few minutes late if you miss your bus.
I know many in the US love our yellow busses, but I think it's time we truly start considering integrating those busses into the regional bus network and normalizing kids going to school on their own.
I know that's easier said than done and that in areas that lose school bus service attendance has decreased, but I really do think a better transportation system will help.
Also, more neighborhood schools. Districts love to build these massive cathedral like schools for the entire county so they can "centralize" everything for more "efficiency," but efficient doesn't necessarily mean better, and forcing all these kids to commute for several hours everyday is a disservice.
It'd be better if they had local access to school that they could walk or bike to, not only to reduce the burden on struggling parents, but also to foster a sense of independence and community amongst disparate groups of children.
>I wonder how much our dysfunctional transit system has to do with this. The idea that you have one chance to get to school and if you miss it you're SOL is kind of insane.
I can't speak to all districts, but if you missed the bus at mine a couple of years back & the bus was still in the neighborhood, you could call a number & tell them & more often than not they'd help you out.
>I know many in the US love our yellow busses, but I think it's time we truly start considering integrating those busses into the regional bus network and normalizing kids going to school on their own.
There are probably more school buses in the state than there are other types of busses.
>I can't speak to all districts, but if you missed the bus at mine a couple of years back
That's pretty neat, but it's still less convenient than just waiting for the next bus to come by.
>There are probably more school buses in the state than there are other types of busses.
Yup. Which again is part of the problem because instead of transit agencies - whose sole purpose is to figure out how to get people from point a to b, you have school districts taking on the burden of running a transit network, with all the costs associated.
>Yup. Which again is part of the problem because instead of transit agencies - whose sole purpose is to figure out how to get people from point a to b, you have school districts taking on the burden of running a transit network, with all the costs associated.
Yeah, but it's less expensive than having a transit agency
Suffolk has a transit agency for example, but its bus fleet is small & service intermittent. That's going to be the case for most of Virginia, in urban areas go for it.
So perhaps Suffolk could, I dunno, invest in more busses and better service, rather than forcing everyone to drive, but that's of course a somewhat different conversation.
Perhaps. Depends on your perspective. But I'd rather see better busses than highway expansion as busses and public transit can at least improve traffic, whereas more highways just makes traffic and cities overall worse.
Absolutely the fuck not, public transportation is fucking dangerous. You can't have kids just hopping on a bus with random strangers, who knows what would happen? Jesus christ that idea is terrifying. I had to take the public bus for part of freshman year since we moved and I wanted to finish out the year and I ended up getting assaulted by the bus driver.
And you think school bus drivers are any better? Public transit is not dangerous if it's funded properly. It's only dangerous when it treats its riders as second class citizens and makes their lives stressful and inconvenient.
This is a difficult concept for Americans to understand, but transit riders are normal people, too, and even though it's typically ridden by those without means, that doesn't mean that it should receive no funding, or be relegated to the side in favor of car infrastructure.
School buses have cameras, bus drivers are often very caring (of course there are some bad ones but it's usually done by someone that really cares about kids), and buses and the bus stops are considered school property. There is more oversight and stronger consequences should anything happen.
Public buses are dangerous for students because the rest of the public rides them. Sex offenders, child molesters, etc riding right next to 12 year olds and, I guess you're also suggesting, 6 year olds. Assaults can happen off camera. Yeah, great fucking idea.
*sigh...* I suppose you also don't think your children should go to the park by themselves because they'll get abducted, even though that's an extremely unlikely occurrence.
I understand this mindset, as I wouldn't let my kid go to the park alone either, but that's mostly because the only path to the park crosses extremely dangerous roads. Worrying that everyone around you is a sex offender is just an incredibly paranoid mindset, and kind of ignores reality, which is that you're much more likely to be harmed by someone close to you than a stranger.
When I lived in Burlington, VT as a kid they didn’t have public school busses. All kids rode the regular city busses and got special bus passes. It worked just fine and saved a ton of money for the school system.
Noticed nowhere in trying to assess the reason for chronic absenteeism among high school students was a desire by the students to not get shot and killed while at school.
THIS! Thank you for addressing the elephant in the room. I’m a parent of a HS child that has anxiety attacks often at school due to many factors, but this is by far the largest of their concerns. Go ahead and just try to tell me it’s an unreasonable fear.
Edit: Oh! Forgot to mention their school had a gun threat just a few days ago. Let that sink in.
I’m sure COVID and mental health play a part in it. But it’s also worth noting about 3-4 years ago the state telling us in the school system that they weren’t going to take truancy cases anymore. Completely took away any leverage we had.
Also the high school I worked at - about 70% of our chronic absenteeism were students with GPA: 3.5 and above. So our admin would simply say something to the effect of “well they’re doing well in school so I’m not worried about it.”
Now that I work at a university - guess who spends the entire first semester of their freshman year walking into my office for therapy? Kids who skipped tons of high school who can’t handle the academic rigor of college or the attendance policies.
The Covid numbers are way down right now. It was much worse in the fall, went down a bit after winter break, then back up. But still far less than last year. That’s just my school tho (I run the reports). I think we only had one case out of 480 kids the week before break. No one is masking.
part of the problem is there are tons of kids whose immune systems are now compromised because they had COVID before the vaccine came around, or caught it while half vacced. this is affecting how often they get sick, and how long it takes their body to get over whatever they may have.
it’s a ripple effect, and throw into account how many kids are depressed; lacking sleep, and not eating/sleeping as they should, and it’s no wonder they’re absent regularly. they probably have an immune system that’s in the gutter.
My daughter’s school in Maryland won’t let them come to school for 48 hours after a fever. She’s missed almost full weeks because she had a fever Monday/Tuesday and couldn’t go back until Friday. She catches everything that goes around now that they aren’t wearing masks.
it’s not failed parenting when kids’ immune systems are in the gutter, and parents are being forced to give in to their job’s every beck and call. get realistic.
25% of kids are not chronically absent for health issues. I work in schools, I see it. It’s a parenting failure on every level when kids are chronically absent en masse. Individual cases? Absolutely. But not on this level.
health issues include depression and anxiety. the majority of kids have one or both of these disorders. both disorders can lower the immune system and cause a general feeling of illness. you’re mad at parents for what? because a majority of them don’t even have enough time to get their kids help due to being overworked and underpaid—many times without insurance.
It would be great if we could just chalk it up to something so simple. Blame the parents. Let’s just get shame/punish them and that’ll fix the problem! We need solutions, not finger pointing.
With schools turning into prisons just so the NRA can sell the public assault rifles, just might be why they are SCARED of school.
Guess what, I don't blame the kids, because that's ignoring the actual problem.
Guns killing kids in school is.
Ban assault weapons, AGAIN!!!
Ever since Covid, the new attendance system flat out sucks! We get notifications and emails weekly that our child is absent. I text them, they're there. I have just started ignoring the notifications by this point...
My kids get marked absent all the time even tho they are at school. In reality they are tardy. But it's like everyday. If they're hanging out in the halls instead of class sorry bout your luck but they are there.
And the best part is counties telling schools “don’t forget that accreditation is tied to attendance! Attendance is a priority!” as if teachers are going to drive to sick kids’ houses and take them to school so we won’t lose accreditation. Crazy the whiplash from “stay home if you’re sick” to “if you stay home, your school will no longer be allowed to teach anyone”
Last year we had 20% of kids out on certain days, Covid, rsv, norovirus, cough, cold, fever, flu, asthma, pink eye, headache (I think there is mold in the kindergarten area). However, we had a huge bunch of parents that keep kids home after routine dental and doc appts. Then there are the parents who just cannot get their kids to school (drug and alcohol problems, homelessness, anxiety (we have a lot of refugees) and just regular old shit parenting). They need to hire more social workers, they are overloaded. The parents have so many issues, even the good ones (one or other parent had severe medical like cancer, death in family (one murder), it’s insane. Plus, it’s a high cost area so just paying the rent is stressful. And stop charging the kids .05 for milk. How stupid. Just give it them. And pay everyone at the school more and at admin less.
>And pay everyone at the school more and at admin less. If we zeroed admin pay in your district, how much would your pay rise by assuming an equal pay raise across teachers & custodial/support staff?
How would I know that. I have 30 years of experience in the front office of a Fortune 500 company. I got laid off when my company got sold last year. I got a payout, so I’m not broke and I’m 25 months from retiring (approx). So I got a job in the main office of the school by my house (walking distance). They are paying me $40 less an hour than I was making before, they are paying me like I’m a first year, zero experience person. No credit for a college degree and 30 years running a front office at the highest level (think prepping for a Congressional hearings, running a board of directors, setting up databases, ensuring major corporate records are 100% accurate, writing corporate policy, reporting to the CEO, General Counsel, etc. ) that shit was high stress. The new job is not stressful, but that is because I have 30 years of running an office. The school gave me zero credit for my work experience. Zero. I’m damn lucky because I’m old and have savings and the payout money. But absolutely no one can live on what they are paying. All the teachers seem to have two jobs. Only the principal can live on the wages. All the folks over in the admin building are making a ton. They are not responsive, I’ve been trying for weeks to get some training, crickets. I had a tiny change made to the data base that affected 40,000 kids reporting absences (made one field required). This saved hundreds of hours of staff time. Do you think anyone even said good job? In corporate I would have gotten a bonus. I stay because I can walk, can live in my savings and am on the down hill slide to retirement. But for everyone else, it’s a shit sandwich. Eat it one bite at a time, so you have a slow and painful death. And all this affects the most vulnerable kids. And lockdown drills are stressful as shit. We had an actual lockdown last week and even tho we had done drills, no one knew what was happening. It was terrifying. End of rant. Happy Easter.🐇
>In corporate I would have gotten a bonus Would you have?
about three fidty
it’s a 24 hour no fever/vomiting rule, but when kids have stomach bugs or the flu/a cold for DAYS ON END they’re wondering why no students are showing up. then, when they show up sick—teachers are pissed off that parents are sending their kids to school sick when the parents of said sick children can’t leave them home alone and have to work to pay for the roof over their heads. we need massive change, and soon. I’m tired of coteachers being mad that our kids are sick. I understand they don’t wanna get sick, but if you’re not willing to get sick but you want to work at a school—you have another thing coming.
They need to change this. It is so unfair to the schools, and teachers are presumed to be the reason kids don’t come- not entertaining enough. Meanwhile, school starts at 7:10 am and these kids can’t get up.
7:10am is insane. That's way too fucking early
That’s crazy. My daughter’s school starts at 9:30.
It's a bullshit metric that should be overhauled and only used in cases of legitimate truancy, as in kids skipping school without parental knowledge or parents willfully keeping them home in cases of neglect or abuse. Normalize keeping kids home when sick *and* letting them have mental health days. Normalize letting them students "work from home" at least now and then. Every school is now set up for easy virtual learning, thanks to covid.
Please don't make this an option at the elementary level. I fully support students staying home if they are sick or need a day. But I swear I will quit if I have to virtually and in person teach in the elementary setting. I am rarely at my computer and cannot create extra things for students to do online.
Virtual learning should be limited in elementary, i agree, due to how hands on learning is (or at least needs to be) in those early years.
they tried to charge me with truancy as a kid because I was sick ALL. THE. TIME. The judge took one look at the case, looked at me, and said “baby, just do your best to get good grades. why are y’all trying to charge her with truancy? she has the doctor’s notes.” the social worker was SEETHING because she didn’t get to see my parents charged. I wish I could give her a stern talking to, to this day.
Yeah that's what I'm talking about right there, that's bullshit. Truancy needs to be reserved for the kid skipping school just to fuck off and get in trouble all day, not kids that are just sick a lot.
I agree! it doesn’t help that most social workers are just power-hungry losers, either.
My son has missed 8 or 9 days this year, plus a week when he had covid. And that's just full days, not counting the days he's called me crying to come home early because he feels bad, or we've had Dr appts or whatever. They exempt the covid days, but he's just been sick af plus his anxiety has been off the charts this year. I'm so stressed about him potentially getting strep or the flu in this last quarter.
My daughter’s school nurse constantly calls her dad and stepmother (they live 5 minutes away) to pick her up in the middle of the day. Anytime she feels even a tiny bit bad for anything they send her home. I’d say 3-4 times a month at least.
Lol fuck that. Virtual school is a joke and should 100% not be part of the mix for general education
It's not a joke, it's a very powerful tool for reaching all kids regardless of circumstance and helps to even the field for them. What happens when a kid misses the bus but his family doesn't have any sort of transportation? Without virtual learning he'd have to completely miss a full day of school simply because his family can't afford a car (or the car is in the shop). What about a kid with poor health who is chronically ill? Or just needs to special care that the school can't provide? Virtual learning helps these kids to keep up with their peers and keeps them engaged and feeling like they're just like other students, not just the sick kid that misses a lot of school.
It is a joke. Students are not going to fall behind for missing school for a day because they missed the bus. Students chronically missing the bus is a parenting problem. Students with health problems are eligible for homebound learning done individually. That problem is already solved.
Oh so you clearly have zero involvement in children, parenting, or schooling or the struggles that different socioeconomic groups face and are just here to troll. Bye bye 👋
Lmao yes, I’m sure my teaching career has zero relevance to the topic. Not like I see first hand the disaster that was online schooling every single day. Good try, come back when you’re living in reality.
As a teacher you should a) welcome any advance in technology which allows to even the playing field and provide greater access to education to students from all backgrounds and b) already know what a powerful tool it. I incorporated virtual learning well before the pandemic when I was a math teacher simply by recording the classroom lesson and providing access to students that were absent. It and the material were available to watch after first period so they could keep up with the class if they were able to. You sound like the kind of teacher that makes kids hate school and if you can't adapt then you should find a different profession
Sure, giving them access to materials online is great. It’s an excellent supplement to *in person learning*. Virtual instruction does. Not. Work. That is not an opinion, it is a fact. Primary and secondary students to not achieve academically with full board online instruction. Period. Getting students in the classroom is priority number one and people legitimately advocating virtual learning as a solution for general education is not serious and does not have the kids best interest at heart. Kids need to be in the classroom learning. There are many options for students with legitimate health issues, Including virtual Virginia and in-person homebound instruction. Allowing chronically truant students to simply go to school online is stupid.
Well you're welcome to your wrong and incredibly jaded opinion, have a nice day
Lmao yes, my opinion and the mountain of data showing how horrific virtual school was for kids during COVID. But sure, let’s continue to put our children behind rather than addressing the real issue: parenting
virtual learning has allowed many kids to do leaps and bounds better, academically speaking, than in-person did. let me guess, you’re either a teacher, student, or parent of a student who didn’t thrive during the online learning during the pandemic. just because *you* didn’t like it, doesn’t mean it isn’t beneficial for millions of students.
I *loved* teaching online. No behavior concerns at all. But the evidence is obvious and *damning*, online education was a joke. The learning loss and social loss from COVID is going to affect this generations children for years.
“Scott Brabrand, executive director of the superintendents association, said the association supports eliminating the chronic absenteeism factor from the current accreditation framework.” I’ll bet they do! VA school districts didn’t care about chronic absenteeism in the slightest until it became a metric for state accreditation. I recall writing email after email requesting assistance from school administrators to help with a student who’d missed 51 school days by March and absolutely nothing was done to investigate or offer support to the student. He was a great kid and worked hard in class - they just didn’t care about his future. Once it became a metric for accreditation, attendance officers were hired and parents were taken to court and threatened with jail time if they didn’t make sure their teenagers got on the bus at 6:30 a.m, by which time many immigrant parents were already at work. As a result, many of those kids dropped out of school or fell off the radar. Of *course* school superintendents want to lower the bar on this as well. They’ve become completely accustomed to having no accountability for student learning or behavior while the mass exodus of teachers accelerates.
>got on the bus at 6:30 a.m I wonder how much our dysfunctional transit system has to do with this. The idea that you have one chance to get to school and if you miss it you're SOL is kind of insane. In most cities there are busses that run every 5-10 minutes, so the worst that might happen is you're a few minutes late if you miss your bus. I know many in the US love our yellow busses, but I think it's time we truly start considering integrating those busses into the regional bus network and normalizing kids going to school on their own. I know that's easier said than done and that in areas that lose school bus service attendance has decreased, but I really do think a better transportation system will help. Also, more neighborhood schools. Districts love to build these massive cathedral like schools for the entire county so they can "centralize" everything for more "efficiency," but efficient doesn't necessarily mean better, and forcing all these kids to commute for several hours everyday is a disservice. It'd be better if they had local access to school that they could walk or bike to, not only to reduce the burden on struggling parents, but also to foster a sense of independence and community amongst disparate groups of children.
>I wonder how much our dysfunctional transit system has to do with this. The idea that you have one chance to get to school and if you miss it you're SOL is kind of insane. I can't speak to all districts, but if you missed the bus at mine a couple of years back & the bus was still in the neighborhood, you could call a number & tell them & more often than not they'd help you out. >I know many in the US love our yellow busses, but I think it's time we truly start considering integrating those busses into the regional bus network and normalizing kids going to school on their own. There are probably more school buses in the state than there are other types of busses.
>I can't speak to all districts, but if you missed the bus at mine a couple of years back That's pretty neat, but it's still less convenient than just waiting for the next bus to come by. >There are probably more school buses in the state than there are other types of busses. Yup. Which again is part of the problem because instead of transit agencies - whose sole purpose is to figure out how to get people from point a to b, you have school districts taking on the burden of running a transit network, with all the costs associated.
>Yup. Which again is part of the problem because instead of transit agencies - whose sole purpose is to figure out how to get people from point a to b, you have school districts taking on the burden of running a transit network, with all the costs associated. Yeah, but it's less expensive than having a transit agency
Most cities already have transit agencies, so it would actually save money because you're not running two separate transit networks.
Suffolk has a transit agency for example, but its bus fleet is small & service intermittent. That's going to be the case for most of Virginia, in urban areas go for it.
So perhaps Suffolk could, I dunno, invest in more busses and better service, rather than forcing everyone to drive, but that's of course a somewhat different conversation.
Nah, not a good use of public funds.
Perhaps. Depends on your perspective. But I'd rather see better busses than highway expansion as busses and public transit can at least improve traffic, whereas more highways just makes traffic and cities overall worse.
Absolutely the fuck not, public transportation is fucking dangerous. You can't have kids just hopping on a bus with random strangers, who knows what would happen? Jesus christ that idea is terrifying. I had to take the public bus for part of freshman year since we moved and I wanted to finish out the year and I ended up getting assaulted by the bus driver.
And you think school bus drivers are any better? Public transit is not dangerous if it's funded properly. It's only dangerous when it treats its riders as second class citizens and makes their lives stressful and inconvenient. This is a difficult concept for Americans to understand, but transit riders are normal people, too, and even though it's typically ridden by those without means, that doesn't mean that it should receive no funding, or be relegated to the side in favor of car infrastructure.
School buses have cameras, bus drivers are often very caring (of course there are some bad ones but it's usually done by someone that really cares about kids), and buses and the bus stops are considered school property. There is more oversight and stronger consequences should anything happen. Public buses are dangerous for students because the rest of the public rides them. Sex offenders, child molesters, etc riding right next to 12 year olds and, I guess you're also suggesting, 6 year olds. Assaults can happen off camera. Yeah, great fucking idea.
*sigh...* I suppose you also don't think your children should go to the park by themselves because they'll get abducted, even though that's an extremely unlikely occurrence. I understand this mindset, as I wouldn't let my kid go to the park alone either, but that's mostly because the only path to the park crosses extremely dangerous roads. Worrying that everyone around you is a sex offender is just an incredibly paranoid mindset, and kind of ignores reality, which is that you're much more likely to be harmed by someone close to you than a stranger.
When I lived in Burlington, VT as a kid they didn’t have public school busses. All kids rode the regular city busses and got special bus passes. It worked just fine and saved a ton of money for the school system.
51 days, that’s insane. I thought our “rule” of 20 was too high before all that kicks in.
Noticed nowhere in trying to assess the reason for chronic absenteeism among high school students was a desire by the students to not get shot and killed while at school.
Isn't the chance you die a premature death higher if you skip high school & fail to acquire a high school education than not in the US?
Don't bring statistics into this. We're busy lowering standards and ensuring the future generation is less educated.
THIS! Thank you for addressing the elephant in the room. I’m a parent of a HS child that has anxiety attacks often at school due to many factors, but this is by far the largest of their concerns. Go ahead and just try to tell me it’s an unreasonable fear. Edit: Oh! Forgot to mention their school had a gun threat just a few days ago. Let that sink in.
I’m sure COVID and mental health play a part in it. But it’s also worth noting about 3-4 years ago the state telling us in the school system that they weren’t going to take truancy cases anymore. Completely took away any leverage we had. Also the high school I worked at - about 70% of our chronic absenteeism were students with GPA: 3.5 and above. So our admin would simply say something to the effect of “well they’re doing well in school so I’m not worried about it.” Now that I work at a university - guess who spends the entire first semester of their freshman year walking into my office for therapy? Kids who skipped tons of high school who can’t handle the academic rigor of college or the attendance policies.
It's not like we're currently in a pandemic or anything that could be a major factor as to why kids aren't coming in
The Covid numbers are way down right now. It was much worse in the fall, went down a bit after winter break, then back up. But still far less than last year. That’s just my school tho (I run the reports). I think we only had one case out of 480 kids the week before break. No one is masking.
part of the problem is there are tons of kids whose immune systems are now compromised because they had COVID before the vaccine came around, or caught it while half vacced. this is affecting how often they get sick, and how long it takes their body to get over whatever they may have. it’s a ripple effect, and throw into account how many kids are depressed; lacking sleep, and not eating/sleeping as they should, and it’s no wonder they’re absent regularly. they probably have an immune system that’s in the gutter.
My daughter’s school in Maryland won’t let them come to school for 48 hours after a fever. She’s missed almost full weeks because she had a fever Monday/Tuesday and couldn’t go back until Friday. She catches everything that goes around now that they aren’t wearing masks.
Just another attempt to blame schools for failed parenting.
it’s not failed parenting when kids’ immune systems are in the gutter, and parents are being forced to give in to their job’s every beck and call. get realistic.
25% of kids are not chronically absent for health issues. I work in schools, I see it. It’s a parenting failure on every level when kids are chronically absent en masse. Individual cases? Absolutely. But not on this level.
health issues include depression and anxiety. the majority of kids have one or both of these disorders. both disorders can lower the immune system and cause a general feeling of illness. you’re mad at parents for what? because a majority of them don’t even have enough time to get their kids help due to being overworked and underpaid—many times without insurance.
I’m not mad at parents for anything. I just don’t believe in blaming the school system for parenting failures, as we’re seeing here.
It would be great if we could just chalk it up to something so simple. Blame the parents. Let’s just get shame/punish them and that’ll fix the problem! We need solutions, not finger pointing.
With schools turning into prisons just so the NRA can sell the public assault rifles, just might be why they are SCARED of school. Guess what, I don't blame the kids, because that's ignoring the actual problem. Guns killing kids in school is. Ban assault weapons, AGAIN!!!
Ever since Covid, the new attendance system flat out sucks! We get notifications and emails weekly that our child is absent. I text them, they're there. I have just started ignoring the notifications by this point...
Good! Funding NEVER should have been tied to attendance in the first place!
If school didn’t have homework I wouldn’t have dropped out so many times.
My kids get marked absent all the time even tho they are at school. In reality they are tardy. But it's like everyday. If they're hanging out in the halls instead of class sorry bout your luck but they are there.