ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Since the pandemic, schools nationwide have had a problem with chronic absenteeism.
According to the U.S. Department of Education, chronic absenteeism can lead to higher dropout rates, low academic achievement and poor outcomes later in life.
It's a problem many of our local school districts are facing, including Alexandria. New ACPS Superintendent Dr. Melanie Kay-Wyatt says one of her top priorities is tackling this issue.
Chronic absenteeism is defined as students who miss 10% or more of a school year. That number includes both unexcused and excused absences.
In Virginia, the number of chronic absences jumped from about 10% in 2019 to 19% last school year. ACPS saw a similar trend.
"Before the pandemic we were under ten percent. After the pandemic we were sitting at around 16% for the last couple of years. Currently, looking at today's data we are down to about 14%" said Dr. Kay-Wyatt.
To combat the problem, this year ACPS has changed the way it notifies parents of a student's absence. A new app called "Parent Square" sends out three notifications a day. One in the morning, another mid-day and one at 6 p.m.
"There's hope that parents will connect with the students to ensure they get to school," said. Dr. Kay-Wyatt.
The hope is also that this new system will help with truancy issues, especially at the high school level and eliminate safety concerns of students leaving school and gathering at nearby Bradlee Shopping Center.
Last year, an Alexandria High School student was stabbed to death during a fight at Bradlee Center. Since then, school officials and Alexandria Police have implemented new techniques to ensure student safety.
Senior ACPS leadership also has rotations where they go out into the community during the school day to make sure students aren't visiting nearby places of business during the school day.
In addition to the new absentee notification system, the school system has a new attendance task force, focused on the students who are most at-risk of falling behind. Making sure they have the right help from mental health to substance abuse resources.
"That new task force is really focused on reaching the population of students who fall into the chronic absenteeism rate and how we can better support not just them, but their families as well," said Dr. Kay-Wyatt.