BALTIMORE — Students can't do well in school if they don't go to school.
Over the weekend, Baltimore City Public School staff members gathered at the school headquarters to participate in a phone bank to call nearly 1500 families of absent students. Administrators are prioritizing student attendance throughout the school year.
Families of students who frequently skip school are being contacted as staff reached out to parents and guardians of students who have ten or more unexcused absences since school started four weeks ago.
Besides absent students, there are some students who have yet to attend school at all this year. Baltimore City Public Schools staff are trying to reach those kids and their parents to improve their chances for future success.
Baltimore City Public Schools coordinator office of student conduct and attendance Dr. Tanya Crawford-Williams said “it's important for their social, emotional skills, their learning, their connecting to other adults and to determine what they want to do in the future to be successful adults.”
Students with a strong attendance record are more likely to have more success in life such as graduating from college, better employment and better physical and mental health.
Attending school is also the law. In Maryland, all children between the ages of 5 and 18 must attend school.
An absence from school can be excused if a parent or guardian provides a note explaining the reason why such as a death in the family, an illness, or a religious holiday.
Students who are absent for 10% or more of school days are considered chronically absent, while students who have missed more than 20% of school days without a legal reason are considered truant.
If staff determine the school has made every effort to work with a family and offer support but a student remains truant, administrators may file charges against the parent or guardian in district court.
The weekend phone bank was designed to prevent that from happening.
“It's about partnering with parents. when we call, it's not to punish or be punitive, it's really to be a partner with the parents to figure out what they need from us,” Crawford-Williams said.
School administrators are calling on parents to get involved by keeping in touch with their child's teachers and checking their child's attendance through the online parent portal.
