Crisis in the Classroom: Fighting to get student absenteeism under control in W.Va.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WCHS) — As bad as teacher attendance is in some West Virginia counties, there are many areas where student attendance is even worse.

State education department records show in the last school year, 57% of McDowell County students were absent 19 or more days. In fact, there were seven school systems where more than 40% of their students were chronically absent, missing at least 19 days.

In addition to McDowell, add Lincoln, Boone, Wyoming, Brooke, Logan and Summers to the list.

"We've gotten away from seeing the importance of setting those good foundational habits of getting up and going, just like you do when you have a job," Lincoln County Schools Superintendent Frank Barnett said.

In the 2022-23 school year, Lincoln County had the state's second-worst attendance numbers. Nearly half of the county's students were chronically absent. In his first full year as superintendent, Barnett is employing several methods and strategies to cut those absences and he says the county is seeing positive results.

"We've formed attendance teams at each school level," Barnett said. "We have our community schools contacts. We have our community contacts. We have our social workers and our counselors who are getting on the phone and making phone calls when these students are absent. 'Where are we? What's going on? We're worried. What can we do to help?' Our attendance director is making home visits. We're utilizing all those things. We've put a lot of those items into place. I'm glad to say it's still not where I want it, but we've dropped from 49%, almost 50% to this year at this point, I ran the data yesterday, we're at 39.26%. That's huge. We've got a long way to go but we're going to keep plugging along until we get there."

There are laws on the books where parents can be held responsible if their children miss too much school. But that requires cooperation between school systems and county prosecutors, something Barnett says was missing the past but that's no longer the case.

"We've been working with the prosecutor to say, 'Hey, we need some help. We need your help.' We've got a very good relationship with the prosecutor. We had a great meeting with them the other day," Barnett said. "That's not our goal, to prosecute anybody. We just want to make sure that these kids are coming and getting what they need academically, socially and emotionally."

While Lincoln County and other school systems across the West Virginia try to get more of their kids in school, the state department of education is well aware of the problem and how chronic absenteeism affects much more than just grades.

West Virginia State Schools Superintendent Michele Blatt is in the middle of the battle.

"The counties are really working with parents but it's going to take the community and everybody to start back focusing on the value of an education, the importance of education," Blatt explained. "So many of our communities are changing culture, that school is where students need to be if they want to able to succeed and move forward in life and that school is important. It's not just something if I have some time, I'll show up."

There are counties managing student absence problems but even the five systems with the best attendance numbers still have about one-fifth of their students chronically absent, Those counties are Ohio, Hardy, Taylor, Marion and Putnam.

Blatt and superintendents in counties with the highest rates of absenteeism say if the state can't find a way to get teachers and students back in class more often, efforts to improve test scores and educational results may continue to fall short.

"We've got to get the focus back on the importance of that and the fact that the achievement isn't going to get better with these chronic absenteeism numbers,' Blatt said. "It even affects the students that aren't chronically absent because so many students are absent, there's so much repetition to catch those students up so that all of our students see an impact on learning."

Barnett added he is a proponent of career and technical education.

"We're looking at getting these these students, not only academically and college ready, but getting them career ready. Part of career ready...is those soft skills, the work habits and showing up to work on time. Being where you're supposed to be and doing what you're supposed to be doing and just building those habits. The academics will come. We get them here and the academics will come."