Santa Rosa City Schools has released its annual attendance rates for 2011-12, tallied by school.
Here is are the average rates of absenteeism (ranked highest to lowest) on each campus:
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Brook Hill, 5 percent
Steele Lane, 4.94 percent
Doyle Park, 4.71 percent
Monroe, 4.57 percent
Lincoln, 4.24 percent
Biella, 3.91 percent
Burbank, 3.46 percent
Hidden Valley Satellite, 3.37 percent
Helen Lehman, 3.31 percent
Hidden Valley, 3.28 percent
Proctor Terrace, 3.17 percent
MIDDLE SCHOOL
Cook Middle School, 6.79 percent
Comstock, 5.59 percent
Santa Rosa, 5.17 percent
Slater, 5.08 percent
Rincon Valley, 3.39 percent
HIGH SCHOOL
Elsie Allen, 8.32 percent
Piner, 6.10 percent
Santa Rosa, 5.41 percent
Montgomery, 5.12 percent
Maria Carrillo, 3.92 percent
On the middle and high school campuses, there is a direct correlation between the rate of absences and the rate of poverty among students. Elsie Allen has the highest rate of student poverty among high schools in the district and it also has the higest absentee rate. Conversely, Maria Carrillo has the fewest students living in poverty and the lowest rate of abstenteeism.
The same holds true on middle school campuses: Cook has the highest rate of poverty and the highest rate of absenteeism, while Rincon Valley has the lowest rates in both categories.
Why are these numbers important, aside from the notion that every minute in the classroom counts toward a student’s education? Because according to the district, each 1 percent fluctuation in actual attendance has an impact of $837,000 on the district’s budget.
Tom Joynt
This is a Santa Rosa story – but most communities have similar issues. I am retired long enough from the schools – over 10 years, from Juvenile/Truancy Court for nearly 6 months and offer this simplistic one word response. Parents.
Parents who think being on time at Kindergarten “circle” is not important – when it teaches young learners to listen, share appropriately and feel part of a group. Part of something bigger than there little selves. Parents who have entered into marriage and parenting with often their own failed school experience make this a generational issue. Loss of revenue is almost irrelevant. Absent kids lose the opportunity for healthy relationships with caring adults at school. Judges and the court stand ready to enforce the laws, but the current truancy laws are insufficient. School leaders and parents alike need to ask the teachers organization to lobby on behalf of enforceable laws….CTA and CFT have clout. Ask Jerry Brown,
In all, the pattern of attendance at elementary level is repeated at middle school and high school. In court we often saw a pattern “all the way back”. I parents feel the school is failing to teach their child, to embrace their child -they have options, such as charter schools.
That said, we can not overlook income levels..kids at lower socio-economic levels often have one or two parents working 2 or 3 jobs to make ends meet – or they are among the permanently unemployable – kids are overlooked either way.
November 14th, 2012 8:05 am
TC
Many of the students who go to schools like Elsie Allen or Cook Middle, Slater Middle, etc. come from a culture where education is not really the main priority. I know many people who think that their culture is not too fixated on education, and that needs to change. Somebody needs to speak up and help these youth. Myself am 19 years old and I have had a lot of experiences with youth who come from backgrounds where their future is going to be in the toilet, and it only takes doing your schoolwork and studying at least a few hours a week to make a big difference in life.
November 14th, 2012 9:33 am
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November 14th, 2012 11:09 pm