PHOENIX (AZFamily)— More students in Arizona are ditching books and ditching classes.
According to a Helios Education Foundation and WestEd report, nearly 30% of students in Arizona missed 18 days or more during the 2022-2023 school year.
Like many schools across the state, this narrative is no different at Kyrene Elementary School District.
“We found that it was significant the last couple of years. Pre-COVID 12%. Post-COVID 25% in that chronic absenteeism,” said Mark Eley, the principal at Kyrene De Los Cerritos.
To combat the problem, Arizona Superintendent Tom Horne is calling for schools to fail students if they have nine or more unexcused absences.
Eley said he’s not sure if that alone will solve the problem.
“That’s not really a route any district has seen as a success. It is taking a punitive path versus taking a partnership path,” he said.
That is why Kyrene is developing a task force of teachers and staff to help find solutions to get kids to school.
“We want to make sure parents are aware of the impact of absences and that cumulative effect and just the importance of being in school,” Eley said.
Since creating the task force, Eley said chronic absences are down 20% this year.
“All of us need to take those steps to get that info out to parents and build those relationships,” Eley said.
The district recently kicked off a campaign called Here Today, Thrive Tomorrow. Parents can access a website that demonstrates the impact of absences on their children and provides guidelines for when they should or should not send their children to school if they are sick.
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