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This article is part two of two.
As of last year, reports show that about 25 percent of students in Utah are chronically absent, which means they
miss 10 percent or more of the school year. Reports also indicate that these students are struggling academically.
In the state of Utah, chronic absenteeism in grades 7-12 is no longer punishable by court, but this doesn’t mean that the state is not taking action to help aid the education of these students. New policies and programs have gone into effect as a support system.
The Utah State Board of Education [USBE] has set students’ needs and futures as top priority.
“There’s lots of research that shows that when a student, you know, misses that, that 10 percent or more of school that
there’s significant impact,” said USBE Absenteeism and Dropout Prevention Specialist Aspen Florence. “They struggle more academically, they struggle more socially, and then they have lower graduation rates.”
To combat this USBE has implemented a three-step intervention plan, with each step becoming more and more specific to the needs of each student. The first tier is the broadest of the three and is available for all students and families.
“It’s like a foundational instruction that we provide to all students and families…those are things that are available for all students that should meet the needs like the academic or behavior needs of most of our students,” Florence said. “And so for tier one we’re working on an attendance campaign for the state. So it’s really just letting people know, actually attendance is really important and this is why it’s important.”
This focus on attendance became especially important after the pandemic when attendance was at a record low and was difficult to accurately assess. Individual schools were encouraged to intervene before the situation of each student became severe. This is also where the end of court appearances because of attendance
was implemented, although because of the legislative process, this took a while to become effective state wide.
“Again, with the expectation of having run a lot of intervention prior, which we should, but then just last year’s legislative session took that out,” said Florence, “so now it’s that only kids that can be seen or the only cases that a court can see are those that, you know, have a criminal offense, and no longer is school truancy a criminal offense.”
Because court cases are no longer enforced, additional intervention is needed for those students who are consistently absent. This would be considered Tier Two on the tier plan.
“[Tier Two] would be like, a kid we’ve noticed that they’re not coming to school because they don’t have like a good community or they don’t have good social skills or right and then we would off er programs to help kind of meet those needs to where they, you know, are more likely to attend regularly,” Florence said.
One program offered currently at NS that falls under the Tier Two classification is WhyTry Utah. The WhyTry Program is provided to students who have low attendance rates to help them value their education and teach them life skills.
“I try to listen,” WhyTry? counselor Wendy Sorensen said. “When I am talking with the youth or working with the youth, I want them to talk 80 percent of the time and me listen to what’s being said. Because there’s a reason why they’re not coming to class. So I want to know, what is that why? And I want to know what motivates them. What can we do to help them?”
WhyTry, as well as other programs, are focusing on meeting students on their levels to help them with their attendance. The focus being on the well-being of all students and being a resource for students.
“If they’re asking me to walk a mile in their shoes, I’m like, let’s do two. Let’s do three, you know,” said another WhyTry? counselor Shaun Wells. “I’ve told students I don’t care if you call me every name in the book, and twice on Sunday, I can take it, but just to get those moments of when they, like, to catch something, and they’re like, Aha! Those aha moments. That makes it all worth it.”
One of the most important ways these programs provide help is through teaching life skills. Skills such as problem solving, positive thinking, time management and many others.
“Explaining to them if it’s overwhelming in that class due to the work,” said WhyTry? counselor Nachole Dastrup, “how to break that down. Instead of looking at it as a whole and trying to accomplish a whole bunch of ones, teach them and show them how they can break that down too… mini-scale it down to what they can handle and achieve and see a small goal accomplished and then get a bigger goal and a bigger goal so that they can see this range of breaking it down.”
The final aspect taught state-wide is social skills as well as resilience.
“One of the lessons we really like to show them is by doing what is hard, your life will be easier. Doing what is easy, like will make it hard,” Dastrup said, “so avoidance and taking an easy way out is going to make the rest of their life extremely hard. So teaching them to do what is hard now is gonna make it so that throughout their life that they’re gonna have better resilience to be able to do the hard stuff throughout.”
The last case scenario comes in Tier Three which is for students who are missing 20 percent or more of school. This final stage of intervention is a personalized plan with the student, their parents and some form of attendance official. This is not a punishment but instead a curated plan for help.
“And then we have Tier Three, which is like really individualizing for only about 3 percent of our kids. And that’s where we’re really having to give intense support and services,” Florence said.
While the idea of not having a punishment for not attending school is good in theory, it is not working in practice. In recent years there has been an increase in absenteeism for students who already are apathetic towards attendance.
“If you don’t come to school, then it’s the school’s responsibility to make you come to school,” Allred said, “but how does the school punish somebody, or consequence somebody that doesn’t come to school if I can’t get them to school? Yeah. Like, it’s a catch 22, on the school’s part.”
A prominent issue has been finding the best way to motivate students into attending class. Students who are missing seat time now are the ones who already lack the respect for school.
“So if I’m not in school, I miss out socially, right? And so who’s that hit, really?” said counselor Heather Allred. “The kids that want to do activities, that are involved in stuff , the kids that are just coming for academics, if the class isn’t going to be engaging, then they aren’t going to want to come.”
In the NS School District, our policies and resources align with state recommendations. Each school has counselors, wellness centers and adults to talk to. These resources are available for every single student.
“Just ask,” District Assistant Superintendent Rena Orton said. “They can get them, they can go in the office with the secretaries and ask. A lot of the wellness rooms, they just have to go to the wellness room. They are available.”
