Attendance records are kept for state secondary schools in my state, and the statistics are alarming.
About a quarter of the students in some of the states biggest high schools don't turn up on any given day!
There are thousands of students in certain schools, where one day each week is skipped, and this amounts to two school years by the time they reach year 10.
One in every 3 absences is unexplained...truency or skipping school...with the rest due to family reasons or illness.
This is not acceptable. We have truency officers, but the government cut their numbers in the last budget.
Are their schools in your area where there is similar absences?
[question posted by jennybianca]
responses and comments:
It seems in the USA in Minnesota that truancy is also a large problem. Mostly due to gang activity etc in the inner city schools. In the suburban schools the truancy is due to just wanting to feel cool it seems. The rate is probably the same if not worse. My 2 children skipped a lot as I had caught them myself a few times. We have truancy officers that look like Junior High & High School aged kids that go to parks arcades etc to catch truant kids. I can't recall the penelaties as my children haven't been in school since 1996. Thanks for a great post. I'm looking forward to hearing from other countries in this discussion also. Thanks once more for an intriging topic. Happy postings from Grandpa Bob [webeishere]
You are addressing high school and not elementary or middle school correct? Compulsory education ends at 16 in most states, which is part way through high school. The statistics you are looking at might be including students who remain on the books because they are past the age of compulsory education but no one has removed them from the enrollment books. Once a student is past the age of compulsory requirements truancy officers are in appropriate. The student is no longer required to actually be in school. It would be beneficial for students to have instructional choices that do not require they sit in a classroom, by the time they are 17. In this day there is no reason that they cannot study and test by computer, or only attend physical classrooms once a week. Our country pushes for earning power, creates a need for work, and then denies these young adults a safe mechanism to continue with basic education and hold a job full time so that they can begin building a record of work experiences that will help them in landing better employment with a combination of work experience and education. There is nothing harsher than doing what everyone says you should do, attend college, only working part time during the young adult years only to enter the job market laden with student loans and still make what a 17 year old high school student makes at entry level pay, due to a lack of work experience. Statistics tell only part of the story the rest of the story rests in the society that is compiling them. [SageMother]
One of the best responses I've seen on any discussion in a long time. I thank you for it also. Keep up this work. I love it. very informative & thought out fully. Thanks again. Happy postings from Grandpa Bob [webeishere]
When my daughter skipped school the school suspended her for 3 or 4 days which to me was absolutely crazy because that was rewarding her with a few days vacation. then I had the problem of whether to leave her at home alone while I was at work or to take my vacation time to keep and eye on her!! To me that was a@@backward [whiteheather39]
As far as I know the schools in my city are very strict. The attendance office at each school will call home and parents' work place if the student doesn't show up. In some schools students get zeros if they skipped the class, therefore I don't think it is a good thing at all to skip. The parents get mad, and I have heard that parents can be charged for a crime if their children are not in school. Of course I think it depends on the schools, each school needs to make sure to call the parents because then I think it stops. Have a nice day. Pablo [callarse1]
In m area the rates aren't nearly so high. We live in a rural area though and the kids wouldn't have anything to do if they did skip, so what is the sense of skipping? Anyway if they do skip, the parents are called and they get detention for the first warning, then suspended for the second warning, then expelled for the 3rd time. I've been telling the schools for years about how stupid this policy is, but it still hasn't changed. [kelly60]
Not a huge problem but then again I live in a small city. They are right ontop of it. I have seen truency officers come to our next door neighbors house. The boy skips school and his dad is having a problem getting him to go. I don't think kids realize how important it is for them to go to school. That education is very important. I wish that we could get it through their heads how important it is for them to get that education so they can make it in this life. [sunshinelady]
Yes, of course! I finished secondary school last year, I have good degrees (english - "A", latvian - "B", math - "B" history - "C") but I skiped school often. I think it's not so important to be in school every day, it's important to know what you want and what do you like. For example I hated philosophy because of the stupid (yes, really stupid and booring) teacher, so I skiped lessions lot of times. I just did my tests so I had no problems and my marks were average. But I loved history(but it's hard) and english so I went to every lession. So I don`t think that skiping school is something terrible, do all the tests,just get average marks at studies you don`t like and do your best at studies you like. [c45hfl0w]
This is problem not only of your state but it is in most of the countries. Children are not paying much attention to the school. This may because parents are providing tution facility to the children so they think that course can be completed even at home then why should spend time in school. Absence due to illness is very less. Unknowingly reasons are more there. Just to watch film, to on trip with friends etc are the reason behind skipping the class. [pramodthakur]
yes that happens all the time where i live.I live in the city and i always see kids walking around during school hours.We have what we call "tabs"If an officer sees a kid during school hours they pick them up and take them to this place called "the boys and girls club" and they call thier parents.Thier parents get a really big ticket!!I really wish kids now days knew what they were really doing.How bad its going to affect thier futures with no education.I use to skip school all the time...i even dropped out of school.And i regret that more then anything because i struggle now.I mean i work at a high class resturant and get paid enough to pay my bills and take care of my kids but i want so much more.And i know i cant get any better without an education.Im actually ganna go back to school and finish my education cuz this is horrible. [desimanero]
I believe truancy is a big problem everywhere.It's hard for parents to make sure their kids are in school wheny they are working but then there are parents who just don't care.Sometimes the parents are well aware of it,their kid wants to stay home ,that 's fine with them. they don't stop to think they are messing around with their kid's future.I do think that schools need more truant officers but I also think they need to address the underlying cause too.I know alot is just plain laziness but I do know that some is due their treatment by other classmates.I went through it myself.I dreaded every day of school because I knew what was in store for me [66jerseygirl]
Yeah I think it is pretty much everywhere. The schools around here have limited the days you are allowed to absent during a school year and have also try instilling fines to parents if there children aren't in school without a doctors excuse or some kind of emergency. [limosonia1]
Don't worry. In my city this number is bigger. I'll give an example like my school. My class is from 19 people,because all the others were expeled after they couldn't pass the English exam after the 8th grade. Now at the end of this school year there will be another exam this time Advanced level and I bet that more than the half of the class won't pass it. Not to mention that a lot of my classmates have a lot of apsences which leads to expeling also. And another thing is that some people are emigrating to abroad and I can see the end of our class. How tipical. No matter what everybody talked about not being late, to go to school regularly, it seems that nobody cares that much. [tzvetelina]
this may or may not be true, but at my high school i only know about 3 people that miss more then 10 days in a year. where did you get this information? [MKpack22]
This information is for the State of South Australia. The stats I found in the styate newspaper, The Advertiser. I know them to be a fact, as I am a retired teacher myself. [jennybianca]
There are... and I have personal account. For instance, when I was in high school, I will admit that I was one of those people who skipped school... often just to lounge around at home. I consider myself a little different, cause I would work double time to make up all my missed work, mostly because I became bored with the grind and got myself behind to force myself to work harder... my younger sister, meanwhile, is a sophomore in high school and she was missing a lot of one particular class in her freshman year. it was not because of a lack of interest but because of a conflict with the teacher. my sister was moved from the class and her attendance improved greatly... i think in the end we have to look at parents, schools, and the student themselves and find the root causes and eliminate them. we need to all be held with equal responsibility in this matter. [thrwbckjay67]
I skipped school for 37 and 1/2 days my sophmore year. I knew a lot of kids that skipped school. In my state once you hit 16 the truency officers can't do anything about it. I'm not sure on the exact numbers or statistics but I'm sure it's probably close to what your stats are. See when I dropped out of school I went and got my GED. It didn't take long and I didn't have to go to school everyday. I went like 3 times a week for 4 hours each time. It was the best thing I could have done. I was already behind in school because my freshman year my dad didn't put me in school. So I didn't want to graduate late or anything so I ended up graduating a year early. I always hated school that's why I skipped. [pebbles_cubbie]