By Talbert Toole
Lifestyles Editor
talbert.toole@hottytoddy.com
Mississippi celebrates Attendance Awareness Month — a statewide campaign to promote regular school attendance — throughout the month of September.
The campaign is part of a national movement to reduce chronic absenteeism with schools and districts in Mississippi.
Chronic absence results in lower levels of numeracy and literacy by third grade; class failure in middle school, high levels of suspension; higher likelihood of high school dropout and lower rates of college completion, according to a 2016-2017 report released in February 2018 by the Mississippi Department of Education (MDE).
The statewide report evaluated absenteeism within schools and districts across the state.
The report showed that 14.2 percent of Mississippi students were chronically absent in the 2016-2017 school year, according to the MDE.
The scores were based on truancy — an absence of a compulsory school age student from school for five or more days without a valid excuse, which is an unlawful act and may lead a parent or guardian of a student to be subjected to criminal prosecution, according to the report.
The report stated that many educators across the state concluded that truancy leads to chronic absenteeism, however, it is only one component to chronic absenteeism.
Both the Oxford School District and Lafayette County School District were evaluated in the MDE’s report.
The Oxford School District scored an average 10.63 percent overall with Lafayette County School District scoring an average 12.35 percent.
For the OSD, the Scott Child Development Center scored the highest out of the seven schools with a 29.73 percent score. The high school scored a 14.74 percent.
LCSD leading school was the high school with an average absentee value of 18.92 percent with the middle school following behind with an average of 12.08 percent out of the district’s four schools.
The data report stated that chronic absence is missing 10 percent or more of a school day, whether the absence is excused, unexcused or due to suspensions.
OSD Superintendent Brian Harvey said the school district is not satisfied with the MDOE’s report of the OSD and there is always work to be done to improve students from being absent.
“Chronic absences make it harder for students to learn and teachers to teach,” Harvey said. “We will never narrow the achievement gap until we bring absenteeism under control, and that means starting early in the year, every year.”
The Oxford School Board of Trustees approved the “Attendance Matters in the Oxford School District” resolution Aug. 27.
The resolution proclaims that attendance matters to the district and it is focused on reducing the numbers, reported by the MDE, to give all the school children in the district an equal opportunity to learn, grow and thrive academically.
The LCSD released a statement to parents and guardians of Commodore students in September 2017 regarding Attendance Awareness Month stating how absences can affect students and strategies to lower absences.
For more information regarding Attendance Awareness Month, visit the Mississippi Department of Education’s website.
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