Cindy Fox, supervisor of customized learning and attendance for Alleghany Highlands Public Schools, spins a prize wheel at a recent event at Callaghan Elementary School to promote attendance. In the past school year, AHPS had attendance competitions each month in all schools. Schools also gave away t-shirts, water bottles, gym bags, and other items to encourage student attendance.
AHPS Makes Positive Strides in Curbing Chronic Absenteeism
LOW MOOR — The Alleghany Highlands Public Schools Division has made positive strides in addressing the number of students chronically absent from school.
In the 2023-2024 school year, the school division’s elementary schools saw substantial improvement in student attendance in many areas. The improved attendance at AHPS elementary schools comes as schools throughout the nation and Virginia continue to struggle to get students back into the classroom in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
In the past school year, chronic absenteeism fell by an average of 10.5 percent in AHPS’ four elementary schools. Students who are chronically absent are defined as those who miss 10 percent or more of the school year — typically 18 or more days.
The number of chronically absent students in the Commonwealth nearly doubled after the pandemic, jumping from 10.6 percent during the 2018-2019 school year to 20.1 percent during the 2021- 2022 school year.
As a result, AHPS has joined schools across the country in battling chronic absenteeism as they work to reverse learning loss caused by school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a report released in October 2023, two-thirds of the nation’s schools faced severe chronic absenteeism in 2021-2022. Virginia fared better than many other states. Absenteeism in other states climbed as high as 49 percent in the 2021-2022 school year, and the problem persisted in 2022-2023.
AHPS leaders are constantly looking for ways to lower those numbers and get students back in the classroom. The Virginia Department of Education has identified fighting chronic absenteeism as a critical way to boost test scores and help students recover pandemic learning loss.
In AHPS elementary schools, establishing relationships with parents and students have played a key role in reducing chronic absenteeism. Heavy emphasis has been placed on regular communications with families and establishing personal connections with students.
In addition to creating an environment that is welcoming, safe and productive for students, elementary schools are providing fun incentives for those who attend regularly.
“Last year, we had attendance competitions each month among all of our schools. The school who had the best attendance rate at the end of each month was given an ice cream or snack during their lunch. Schools also gave away t-shirts, water bottles, gym bags, and other items to encourage student attendance," said Cindy Fox, supervisor of customized learning and attendance.
As a result, chronic absenteeism at Callaghan Elementary School in 2023-2024 fell from 30.74 percent to 13.5 percent. And improvement was also seen at Jeter-Watson Elementary School, where the rate of chronic absences dropped from 43 percent to 27 percent. Mountain VIew Elementary School saw its numbers drop from 33 percent to 28 percent. Sharon Elementary fell from 26 percent to 22 percent. Related efforts at Jeter-Watson Elementary School were also highlighted at a state-wide conference.
Chronic absenteeism is one of nine factors the Virginia Department of Education looks at when determining if a school should be accredited, or designated as meeting the Commonwealth’s education standards.
“Chronic absenteeism really hurt our accreditation status over a year ago across the board in all grade levels. It is a tribute to our entire school staff and the many attendance initiatives they set forth that our elementary schools all showed marked improvement in this quality indicator,” said Sherman Callahan, Director of Elementary Instruction for AHPS.
While elementary schools saw improved attendance patterns in the past school year, challenges still remain, particularly at the middle school and high school levels. AHPS is working to address chronic absenteeism at all grade levels, and resources that are being used include a valuable survey of parents that was conducted earlier this year.
The convenient online survey of parents and guardians was conducted in the spring. It will be used to refine communications about attendance and help the school division make decisions about what support might help students attend school more regularly. The survey results will also help AHPS determine reasons students who attend school regularly do so.
Fox said she was elated when AHPS received 434 responses to the survey. The school division has a task force that meets to address attendance-related issues.
“The attendance task force team was overwhelmed by the responses we received in the survey. We realize that parents and guardians play such a critical role in substantially reducing chronic absenteeism. We wanted to better understand the levels of concern about absenteeism from school and the reasons for those levels,” Fox said, thanking the community for its participation.
“The results provided insight into the parent/guardian perspective and reasons why their child is missing school. If we are going to get children back in school, these results call out for immediate intervention. Our plan is to continue to communicate with parents about how much school their children are missing, especially if their children’s absenteeism creeps up into chronic range,” she said.
Fox said AHPS hopes parents will become part of a community effort to reduce high absenteeism in schools.
“We plan to reach out to those parents who [indicated on the survey that they wish to be contacted] to work collaboratively to reduce our absenteeism rate,” she said. “Our attendance task force team has worked diligently over the past couple of months to change some of our attendance guidelines. These will be shared in the next couple of weeks.”
Reducing chronic absenteeism in schools is one of the three pillars of Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s All In Virginia education plan, which allocates more than $400 million to school divisions to address learning loss. As part of the plan, the state launched an “attendance matters” campaign and started a chronic absenteeism task force.
“We appreciate the statewide discussions and support surrounding attendance,” said Kim Halterman and Melinda Snead-Johnson, leaders of AHPS. “We know changing attendance patterns is hard work, and both resources and focus are very appreciated.”
The Alleghany Highlands Public Schools Division serves approximately 2,700 students. The school division was established on July 1, 2022, when Alleghany County Public Schools, Covington City Public Schools, and Jackson River Technical Center merged.
School division news and events are regularly posted on Facebook at AHPublicSchools The division website is www.ahps.va.k12.va.us.
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