Mellon Foundation bolsters effort to address chronic absenteeism in region's schools

Schools are back in session for in-person learning, but in some cases, students are simply not showing up.

And these are not just kids ditching a class or two.

Millions of students are now being classified by the U.S. Department of Education as chronically absent after missing 10% or more school days per year.

The Richard King Mellon Foundation, through a $2 million grant program, is working to address the root causes of chronic absenteeism in the region’s school systems.

“This is our way of ringing the alarm,” said Sam Reiman, the foundation’s director. “As with everything we fund, we hope that others are rallied to the cause.”

The philanthropic foundation points to data compiled from the state Department of Education. It shows there were 11,000 students from just 15 schools in the Greater Pittsburgh area whose attendance fit the chronic absenteeism description in the 2020-21 school year.

The list Reiman used to illustrate the pervasiveness of the issue includes Baldwin- Whitehall, Fox Chapel Area, Keystone Oaks, Montour, Northgate, North Hills, Penn Hills, Pittsburgh Public, Propel Charter Schools, Shaler, Steel Valley, Sto-Rox, Wilkinsburg, Woodland Hills and West Mifflin.

“It is happening outside of the urban core, it is happening in charter schools, and it is happening in Westmoreland County,” Reiman said. “It is not just one area.”

In addition to students not learning the basics needed to be productive members of society, studies show that chronic absenteeism can lead to crime and less overall positive life circumstances in communities as a whole, Reiman said.

U.S. Department of Education data show this is not a new issue, as one in six students were chronically absent in the 2015-16 school year. But like so many of society’s issues, truancy has been amplified by the pandemic.

“Absenteeism has always been a challenge, but it is not a great surprise that the pandemic made it worse,” said Bridget Clement, executive director of Communities In Schools of Pittsburgh- Allegheny County (CISPAC). “We have never had two years of school interrupted. And we all have been through a collective struggle.”

CISPAC, which is the local affiliate of the national Community in Schools group, is using the $775,000 of grant money it was awarded to expand into Westmoreland County.

It is funding six positions in four schools for a new initiative.

Burrell, Greensburg-Salem and New Kensington-Arnold school districts and the regional Northern Westmoreland Career and Technology Center will each have a full-time attendance specialist hired by CISPAC on campus.

There will also be two parent engagement workers who will split their time between two locations that will be charged with getting the school community more involved in solving the issues that cause chronic absenteeism.

The nonprofit is now working with the school boards of these districts to implement the programs by collecting data to figure out why kids are not in class.

“There are many reasons, and they differ by community,” Clement said. “If you are hungry, it is harder to attend. If you did not get a good night’s sleep, or if you do not know where you are going to sleep tonight, it is harder.

“Attendance is a symptom, not a problem.”

Propel Schools, which has 3,000 students in Allegheny County, was awarded a $400,000 grant that it is also using to hire attendance specialists at each of its 13 charter school locations.

“Our attendance specialists have made a significant difference already this year by having individual conversations with families through both phone calls and home visits,” Darren Stromock, Propel Schools’ assistant director of student affairs. “Having these positions filled with caring adults … helps scholars overcome their individual obstacles to good attendance.”

A+ Schools is another organization that was awarded a grant. It is using the $250,000 grant to partner with the educational technology startup EveryDay Labs to work to improve attendance at Pittsburgh Arlington, a neighborhood elementary school in the Pittsburgh Public Schools system.

Social media campaigns, texts and postal mail will notify parents of absences along with working through community groups. The company also uses tools to get updated and accurate contact information.

James Fogarty, the group’s executive director, said notifications and clear attendance dashboards are important for parents and students as they do not always realize that excused and unexcused absences are adding up.

“Two days a month over the course of a year ends up leading to chronic absenteeism,” Fogarty said. “We want them to know. Even if that means going through the hilltop neighborhoods to knock on doors.”

The organization is also partnering with a neighborhood organization on leasing and operating a small bus to get students to school in the morning, as some of the students at the school reported lack of transportation as a cause for increased absences.

“Whatever the issues are, we want to help address them,” Fogarty said. “Teachers have enough to do and schools have told us they do not have the needed resources.”

Clement said that while there is a lot of work to do, she is grateful for the increased attention and funding to the issues that cause absenteeism because then they can be addressed.

“The kids have been through a lot,” Clement said. “We have all been through a lot.”