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Oct 22, 2008 6:10 am US/Eastern
Chronic Absenteeism A Problem In NYC Schools
Over 90,000 Students Missed At Least A Month In 2007
Reporting
Cindy Hsu
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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Empty classrooms are becoming more and more frequent in schools across New York City. (File)
CBS
A new report released Tuesday says too many children in New York City schools are missing class, especially in pockets of low-income communities. While much of the focus has been on middle and high school kids, researchers say it's the younger ones who are falling through the cracks, and the problem only gets worse over time.
Researchers call it an invisible problem: New York City school children are chronically absent from class. The study by the Center for New York City Affairs says more than 90,000 – or 20 percent of elementary school students – missed at least a month of school last year.
The problems are even worse for higher grades. According to the study, 24 percent of middle school students missed at least a month of classes, while 40 percent of high schoolers were absent just as long.
At PS-55 in the Bronx, Principal Luis Torres says health problems were keeping his students at home.
"We have asthma, we have diabetes. You'd be surprised, you have kids at 4-years-old who have diabetes," he says.
Torres says students used to miss school for weeks at a time for hospital treatment. He's now convinced parents to bring their kids to the school clinic instead of staying home.
He also hired Counselor Omar Jawo to reach out to many immigrant parents with this message: "It's important for the kids to come to school. If you miss a day, if you miss an hour, it effects the child's educational attainment," he says.
More than 100 children in the school of 700 are from western Africa. The principal found many Muslim students staying home for religious holidays and feeling uncomfortable at school when they were fasting, especially in the cafeteria, so he set aside a room for the children to read or do something else instead of watching other kids eat.
So cultural outreach has really helped with cutting down absenteeism.
Torres says school attendance has grown to nearly 95 percent by focusing on creating a safe, home away from home for the kids.
"You have to be in it to win it, you know, how they say it with lotto," says Torres. "You have to be here in school to be able to get an education."
Education experts held a forum Tuesday to talk about other solutions to chronic absenteeism, such as assigning attendance monitors to smaller areas.
Another recommendation from the report is to have attendance records weigh heavily in students' class grades. Right now, it only counts for 5 percent of the grade.
The Department of Education says it's already begun to implement most of the report's recommendations, and says attendance rates citywide are the highest in more than a decade.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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