WASHINGTON — D.C. leaders hope a closer look at what is happening in schools will help fight crime city-wide.
Tuesday afternoon, the DC Council convened a public roundtable on truancy and chronic absenteeism holding school leaders accountable on ways to keep kids off the streets and in school.
According to DC Police, 458 young people have been arrested for violent crimes in the first nine months of 2023. According to the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE), last school year an average of 43% of all D.C. students were deemed chronically absent, meaning they missed more than 10% of school.
The numbers are even worse when you zero in on high school. Attendance is abysmal: At Anacostia High School 82% were chronically absent, Ballou High School 88%, and at Dunbar High School 82%.
“Kids need to be in school. When they are not in school, obviously, there are a lot of opportunities to get into trouble,” said Jodi Ovca, founder and executive director of Access Youth. “Also, the influences around them, it's harder to say no to things.”
Since 2009, Access Youth has aimed to keep kids in school and engaged. The non-profit organization has served over 10,000 students and is now working full-time in eight middle and high schools in wards 6, 7, and 8. Ovca said program managers work on building relationships with trust and consistency.
“For many of them, the only place they get that is in school,” said Ovca. “Students that come into our program, 98% of them are not suspended, again, for the same behaviors, because we really get to the root causes.”
Access Youth also gets to the reasons why some young people are not in school including transportation and safety.
“It is a refrain I hear all the time, ‘it’s not safe. How do I get to school and feel like something's not going to happen to me?'” Ovca recalled.
Ovca said many students also have multiple jobs.
“They are caregivers within their families, they are taking care of younger siblings, they take them to school before they can get to school,” she explained.
As the DC Council continues to hold school leaders accountable for the high absentee numbers, Ovca said school staffing remains a challenge, get could reverse the numbers and keep kids safe in schools.
“Making sure that we've got teachers in every classroom, teachers that are engaged, and teachers that understand de-escalation techniques,” Ovca said. “The focus for us is always if we can keep them engaged and give them a reason to come and often that is that there's somebody there that cares.”
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