30% of RCS students chronically absent for 2022-23 school year

HAMLET — About a third of students in Richmond County Schools (30%) are considered “chronically absent,” indicating that they missed about 10% of the 2022-23 school year.

In a 180-day school calendar, that means 30% of RCS students missed 18 days. In Richmond County, 3% of the 6,151 K-12 enrollment, a little over 180 students, missed more than 50 days, or the equivalent number of periods for high school students, of classroom instruction.

In 2021, North Carolina’s chronic absenteeism rate was 26%, so RCS’s 2022-23 rate of 30% is slightly higher than the state average. NC is roughly middle in the pack of all states, placing 31st. By 2030, the goal of the myFutureNC Commission is to reduce the statewide chronic absenteeism rate to 11%.

“You can’t learn if you’re not in school, so you have to be there to access the curriculum,” said Dr. Wendy Jordan, director of students services for RCS.

Each school year, RCS sends out C-3, C-5 and C-10 letters, which correspond with how many unexcused absences a student has. These numbers precipitously spiked during COVID, but have fallen slightly each year, but are not close to pre-pandemic levels. Tardiness or early-checkouts are not included in these numbers.

For the 2022-23 year, 8,181 total letters were sent out, a decline from 9,688 the year before. The bulk of these letters were C-3 and concentrated at the K-5 level, which has the most students. The C-10 letters dropped from 25% of overall letters to 21% for this school year.

“That’s a really good drop,” Jordan said, but acknowledged that it may not be possible to return to pre-pandemic numbers. “If we’re sending out 1,200 plus C-10 letters, then there are a lot of kids who are missing [instruction].” For comparison, from August 2019 to March 2020 (pre-pandemic), only 800 total letters were sent out.

During the 2020-21 school year, over 315 Richmond Senior High students missed over 50 days of school.

Jordan recently spoke at a pre-K transition event at West Rockingham Elementary and outlined the important of regular, every day attendance for students of all ages.

“This is where the habit starts…And children are very intuitive, and they figure out the more they complain, or the more they cry, or the more they beg, sometimes that works for them,” Jordan said. “Typically when we look at students who are chronically absent, if they’re in the fifth grade, you can look at fourth grade, third grade, second grade, first grade, and see that it was the same thing during that time. Starting that habit and keeping the habit of regular on time student attendance, unless your sick, is good.”

The 2022-23 school year was the first school year completely removed from COVID. RCS still tracked all of the data, but the CDC has issued guidance that it will not be necessary for next year. This April, there wero zero reported student or staff cases in RCS. In March, there were only six staff and 15 student cases reported.

“Now it’s just going to be treated like the flu,” Jordan said. “By and large this has been the normal year.”

Jordan said she wants all parents to know that missed student instruction time adds up, and that it’s imperative for students to be physically present in school. She agreed that even for first graders who were affected by the pandemic, the effects from that disruption will carry on for the rest of their education journey.

“If the students aren’t here, they can access any remediation, they can’t access the current curriculum, they can’t access any acceleration opportunities,” Jordan said. “Recovering academically from COVID is going to be something that we continuously work toward during the school day, during the summer, after the school day. It really becomes even more important now to be here and get it because it’s going to be a long-term endeavor.”

Jordan reiterated that if anyone has any questions about their student’s attendance, to contact a school social worker, a nurse, a counselor, a teacher — anybody to remove whatever barriers may be in the way from having successful student attendance leading to successful student outcomes.

“Whatever you want for your child’s future, if its a job, military, college, now is when we first start planning for it,” Jordan said.