BALTIMORE, Md. — Playing hooky once in a while is one thing. But missing school enough times to be considered "chronically absent" by the state, or absent for at least 10% of school days, points to a deeper issue. And that applies to nearly half—48.7%—of students in the Baltimore City Public School System (BCPS). That number is down from about 54% the previous school year.
"It is a sign of progress and it is still unacceptable," Baltimore City Council President Zeke Cohen told WMAR-2 News on Thursday. "We need to make sure every single child in our city is getting the education they are guaranteed by the State of Maryland."
The City Council put forth a new bill this year that would require the school system to conduct a study identifying root causes of chronic absenteeism, and strategies to address them. The Education, Youth, & Older Adults committee held a hearing on the bill, with testimony from BCPS and the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA).
One of the major drivers for student absences is transportation. The school system has an agreement with the MTA to get kids to and from school. But Council President Zeke Cohen says sometimes the trip can take more than an hour and a half for students.
"And to me, that's not a good enough outcome. And so what I'd like the MTA to do is come to the table with city schools, city council, the mayor, with all of us, to really think about - are we optimizing the routes our kids are taking to get to school?"
MTA Administrator Holly Arnold said during the hearing that the agency is federally prohibited from providing school-only service, and changing the routes too much to cater to students could come at a cost to other riders who rely on public transit. She said the MTA is open to looking at options.
Council President Cohen asked City Schools Chief of Staff, Alison Perkins, about offering traditional yellow school buses to all students. Right now, bus service is only offered to select groups such as special education students, or students who live a certain distance away from their school. She said that really isn’t on the table; it would be way too expensive, especially since middle and high schools operate in a choice system, meaning students have the option to choose which school they attend.
There are plenty of other reasons why students miss school, but to find out those reasons, the school has to ask. Apparently, that's not always done. Consistency with tracking reasons for absences, and notifying parents when their child isn't in class, varies from school to school, according to testimony from BCPS on Thursday.
In Focus look at chronic absenteeism
"I have noticed when my own kid is absent - they don't ask why," Cohen told WMAR-2 News.
"I think the most important strategy we have is really making sure we're working at the individual school level to figure out what are the specific barriers of the students in their school," she said. "It’s really making sure that the school feels connected to the families, and the family feels connected, and somebody’s following up if attendance becomes not as regular."
WMAR-2 News asked Perkins why a city council bill was needed to do this work when the problem has existed for years. She said there's only so much that can be done within the confines of the schoolhouse.
"That's where we need partners through the city council bill to help us with the more structural things, barriers to transportation, health issues that our families might be experiencing, joblessness, those kinds of things."
The bill moved forward unanimously on Thursday. There are still a few more steps that need to happen before it passes, but there did not seem to be opposition from any parties involved.
