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School absences have ‘exploded’ almost everywhere

nytimes.com

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Re: School absences have ‘exploded’ almost everywhere

#131

Post by freitzkriesler2 »

williamcotton wrote: post #90
MattGaiser wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back when I was in school about a decade ago, kids came to school sick as dogs as taking time off for being sick was seen as malingering. A friend at another school knew a guy who came to school with a stomach bug and puked several times throughout the day as they had a perfect attendance incentive worth grades, so to ensure he got his grades, he walked around puking for the day. I spent plenty of classes hacking and…

Minor sniffles and sneezes should not result in anyone staying home. The pandemic has clearly altered this mentality but it doesn’t seem like a good trajectory. A little cold is barely an inconvenience.

Pretty much this. People keep kids home now for almost any reason at all and you'll get a chorus of replies telling you that your opinion is wrong.

People need to toughen up. Not every cold is covid.

Re: School absences have ‘exploded’ almost everywhere

#132

Post by trgn »

willis936 wrote: post #57
mattw2121 wrote: post #9

"because teachers must slow down and adjust their approach to keep everyone on track." Do this and then you'll have your top performers start being absent as well -- out of boredom. I'd suggest sending kids that are lagging behind, and those that have high absentee rates, into remedial classes. Education should get kids excited about learning. From my experience, nothing gets kids more excited than the feeling that t…

Those ahead don't need additional benefit. We should be working to bring the left half of the distribution into the fold. If a student is so great that they're skipping out of boredom then there's little that a public institution should do to help them. They can go out with a head start and go get em.

Agreed. Just shift them a year ahead, or in an AP track, or bury them in extracurriculars. It really doesn't seem that hard to me, to accommodate a precocious kid, especially in large schools or large public school districts. (shoot me down if I don't know what I'm talking about). The studious ones will be ok, has it ever been different?

Re: School absences have ‘exploded’ almost everywhere

#133

Post by freitzkriesler2 »

from-nibly wrote: post #112
williamcotton wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Minor sniffles and sneezes should not result in anyone staying home. The pandemic has clearly altered this mentality but it doesn’t seem like a good trajectory. A little cold is barely an inconvenience.

No. Keep your kids home if they are sick. An screw every parent who thinks this way. My family got sick 6 times in the last 12 weeks because of this nonsense. If your kid is sick it's your fault if other kids catch what they have. I dont care if it's "just the sniffles" It causes so much inconveniece for my family.

This is how it always was before covid and how it will always be if you send kids to germ factories (aka schools). Get the meds, drink water, go to sleep.

Part and parcel of living in modern society.

Re: School absences have ‘exploded’ almost everywhere

#134

Post by wildrhythms »

mminer237 wrote: post #111

Talking with our local school administrators, this does seem to be the biggest challenge they're facing. From their point of view, it's just caused by (typically poorer) parents who don't care about their kids' education and saw how it seemed to be optional during COVID and so just don't make their kids go if they don't feel like it. It's really sad, and it sounds incredibly hard for anyone else to do anything about.

This is the first comment I see directing the problem at the parents, where I believe it rightly belongs. Is it not the parent's responsibility to make sure their child gets to school safely and on time every day?

Re: School absences have ‘exploded’ almost everywhere

#135

Post by mattw2121 »

vlunkr wrote: post #99
MattGaiser wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Price. If you can travel outside of Dec 20-Jan10th and summer, you can pay maybe half. I have an annual grand trip around the world every year I do off season and I pay less for it in points or cash (mix depends on the places) than friends do to go to Hawaii for a week at Christmas.

Also, lots of travel is based around life events. I can’t control the fact that funerals and weddings can happen at any time of year.

You can control if you are going...

Re: School absences have ‘exploded’ almost everywhere

#136

Post by master-lincoln »

gilbetron wrote: post #101
jawns wrote: post #18

Is it possible that expectations around attendance have never been reasonable or even safe? In an ideal world, people shouldn't go to work or school when they are sick. Not only does it slow their recovery, but in the case of communicable diseases, it spreads the illness. Yet a lot of schools have released post-pandemic guidance about how students should still come to school with minor illnesses. And most workplaces…

I think we do have too little leeway for illnesses for school, but I don't think that's what is going on, at least anecdotally around me. Many parents take their kids out of school for week long vacations, for instance. Also, my son informed me that the day before a big break only half the kids will show up. Plus kids will often just leave because they feel like going home that day. I thought he was exaggerating, but…

In my country taking kids out of school for vacation is illegal and sometimes fined. For illnesses after the 10th day a doctors note is needed in school. Kids can only decide to leave themselves if they are above 18 years old. That seems reasonable to me. How are rules in the US?

Re: School absences have ‘exploded’ almost everywhere

#137

Post by nothercastle »

candiddevmike wrote: post #44
jawns wrote: post #18

Is it possible that expectations around attendance have never been reasonable or even safe? In an ideal world, people shouldn't go to work or school when they are sick. Not only does it slow their recovery, but in the case of communicable diseases, it spreads the illness. Yet a lot of schools have released post-pandemic guidance about how students should still come to school with minor illnesses. And most workplaces…

In my area, you get 10 days of unexcused absence per year before parents and kids start receiving fines and possibly a referral to CPS. That number is way too small IMO, and it forces folks to go to the doctor constantly for getting small illnesses excused (school policies are 24 hours without a fever, but they don't take temperatures, it's honor based...), since you want to keep those 10 days for an actual vacation.

You can have as many excused as you want though.

Re: School absences have ‘exploded’ almost everywhere

#138

Post by lambdaba »

bryanlarsen wrote: post #120
jraby3 wrote: post #7

In Israel a lot of the schools start with 20 minutes of body movement (at least near me). The kids become active. It’s not as big a deal if they are a little late. And my daughter (but not my son) hates missing it.

I wonder if there has been any studies done showing correlation between walking/biking to school and school success. Walking a mile takes about 20 minutes and personally I find that walking to work sets me up for success way better than driving does.

Indeed there have been, I can't recall the exact study, but I found a meta-analysis here: [Physical Activity and Academic Performance in School-Age Children: A Systematic Review ](https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/8/6616).

Re: School absences have ‘exploded’ almost everywhere

#139

Post by jhbadger »

kwhitefoot wrote: post #69
fideloper wrote: post #26

Our kids were too young for school during the pandemic (thank god, it seems like it really messed up kids lives). Now they're both in early-years of school. Attendance is kinda interesting! We parents EXTREMELY want the kids to go to school as it's the much-needed break to get our own work done - both in basic upkeep of our lives/household, and in our careers. We need the school hours to be long. Longer than they are…

> my kindergartener only gets like 20 minutes of recess What? In Norwegian kidergarten (barnehage) there are no formal lessons at all. The whole point of barnehage is to turn young animals into cooperating members of society not to teach them mathematics and reading, that comes later. So the whole day is some kind of play time with intervals of helping to lay the table for lunch, having stories read to, going for wal…

In part because the US has created "pre-school", which children attend for a year or two before kindergarten. This is more like the traditional kindergarten that you describe -- it is intended to get kids to learn to get along with each other, play nicely, sing songs, etc.

Re: School absences have ‘exploded’ almost everywhere

#140

Post by kube-system »

jawns wrote: post #18

Is it possible that expectations around attendance have never been reasonable or even safe? In an ideal world, people shouldn't go to work or school when they are sick. Not only does it slow their recovery, but in the case of communicable diseases, it spreads the illness. Yet a lot of schools have released post-pandemic guidance about how students should still come to school with minor illnesses. And most workplaces…

> Chronic absence is typically defined as missing at least 10 percent of the school year, or about 18 days, for any reason.

I don't think having a cold or two is going to put many people in this category. Decades ago when I was in public school, the kids who were chronically absent like this were the ones who clearly had some behavioral issues or problems at home.

The linked study also demonstrates that the rates are strongly associated with socioeconomic factors. I think the real issue here is that a subset of people simply have fewer fucks to give about school, and that has been accelerated by the distance and space that COVID created between students/parents and school.

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