Blaming the Victim

I’ve written about being absent from school before.

The traditionalists would like you to believe that being absent from school is somehow being absent from learning.

Not true.

All the post-pandemic learning loss being measured today is based on how much classroom time a student has missed. It doesn’t consider the learning that could have taken place out of school, if the traditional system had been better prepared to attack learning anytime, anywhere.

Disappointing.

Now there is news from across the country that millions of kids are missing weeks of school as formal classroom attendance is tanking across the U.S. EducationWeek online reported last week,

“When in-person school resumed after pandemic closures, Rousmery Negron and he 11-year-old son both noticed a change: School seemed less welcoming.”

“Parents were no longer allowed in the building without appointments, she said, and punishments were more severe. Everyone seemed less tolerant, more angry. Negronn’s son told her he overheard a teacher mocking his learning disabilities, calling him an ugly name.”

“Her son didn’t want to go to school anymore. And she didn’t feel he was safe there.”

“He would end up missing more than five months of sixth grade.”

“Across the country, students have been absent at record rates since schools reopened during the pandemic. More than a quarter of students missed at least 10% of the 2021-22 school year, making them chronically absent, according to the most recent data available. Before the pandemic, only 15% of students missed that much school.”

“All told, an estimated 6.5 million additional students became chronically absent, according to the data, which was compiled by Stanford University education professor Thomas Dee in partnership with The Associated Press. Taken together, the data from 40 states and Washington, D.C., provides the most comprehensive accounting of absenteeism nationwide. Absences were more prevalent among Latino, Black and low-income students, according to Dee’s analysis.”

“The absences come on top of time students missed during school closures and pandemic disruptions. They cost crucial classroom time as schools work to recover from massive learning setbacks.”

“Absent students miss out not only on instruction but also on all the other things schools provide – meals, counseling, socialization. In the end, students who are chronically absent – missing 18 more days a year, in most places – are at higher risk of not learning to read and eventually dropping out.”

…

“Kids are staying home for myriad reasons – finances, housing instability, illness, transportation issues, school staffing shortages, anxiety, depression, bullying and generally feeling unwelcome at school.”

“And the effects of online learning linger: School relationships have frayed, and after months at home, many parents and students don’t see the point of regular attendance.”

“’For almost two years, we told families that school can look different and that schoolwork could be accomplished in times outside of the traditional 8-to-3 day. Families got used to that,’ said Elmer Roldan, of Communities in Schools of Los Angeles, which helps schools follow up with absent students.”

…

“Most states have yet to release attendance data from 2022-23, the most recent school year. Based on the few that have shared figures, it seems the chronic-absence trend may have long legs. In Connecticut and Massachusetts, chronic absenteeism remained double its pre-pandemic rate.”

“In Negron’s hometown of Springfield [Massachusetts], 39% of students were chronically absent last school year, an improvement from 50% the year before. Rates are higher for students with disabilities.”

“While Negron’s son was out of school, she said, she tried to stay on top of his learning. She picked up a weekly folder of worksheets and homework; he couldn’t finish because he didn’t know the material.”

“’He was struggling so much, and the situation was putting him in a down mood,’ Negron said.”

“Last year, she filed a complaint asking officials to give her son compensatory services and pay for him to attend a private special education school. The judge sided with the district.”

“Now she’s eyeing the new year with dread. Her son doesn’t want to return. Negron said she’ll consider it only if the district grants her request for him to study in a mainstream classroom with a personal aide. The district told [the Associated Press] it can’t comment on individual student cases due to privacy considerations.”

“Negron wishes she could homeschool her sons, but she has to work and fears they’d suffer from isolation.”

“’If I had another option, I wouldn’t send them to school,’ she said.”

“For almost two years, we told families that school can look different and that schoolwork could be accomplished in times outside of the traditional 8-to-3 day. Families got used to that.”

The Los Angeles Communities in School’s worker doesn’t lie.

So why weren’t we able to keep that promise to millions of families across the country?

You know the reason.

Because our present public school system was not prepared to offer any type of learning that occurred outside of their classrooms and their schools. Our present public school system failed miserably at providing a personalized learning plan for each of the country’s young learners.

And now, that same system is blaming young learners and their families for being “absent.”

How pathetic that our public school system is now blaming kids and their families for not showing up to classrooms and schools that, for the black, brown, and poor, are probably low-performing and unsafe.

Maybe all these kids who have stopped coming to school know something the rest of us are just figuring out –

that our public school system failed in its attempt to provide out of school learning during the pandemic, and that the only way our failing public school system can feel better about itself is to have all young learners return to the place where adults feel comfortable and important – school.

Til tomorrow. SVB