WACO, Texas — Transformation Waco (TW) announced that it saw a 13% reduction in chronic absenteeism across four schools in the 2022-2023 school year.
According to TW, chronic absenteeism is when a student misses more than 10% of the required school day. TW says this number for it's four schools was at 35% during the 2021-2022 school year.
A Transformation Zone was comprised of Alta Vista, Brook Avenue and J.H. Hines elementary schools as well as G.W. Carver Middle School.
The following improvements were made by each school from the 2021-2022 school year to the 2022-2023 school year:
- Alta Vista Elementary - 26% to 13%
- Brook Avenue Elementary - 23% to 17%
- J.H. Hines Elementary - 42% to 24%
- G.W. Carver Middle School - 43% to 31%
According to TW, chronic absenteeism was a huge issue following the COVID-19 pandemic.
TW CEO Dr. Robin McDurham stated, "One out of three TW students missed 18 days or more of school in 2021-2022. The omicron strain of COVID-19 caused substantial peaks in cases that year and higher numbers of absences nationwide. Chronic absenteeism is exacerbated by systemic inequities like housing and food insecurity, inadequate access to mental health support and necessities like clothing, lack of electricity, and transportation difficulties."
When figuring out a way to combat this issue, TW used a holistic student and family support system in order to improve their attendance numbers.
According to McDurham, each TW campus has attendance and coordination of care teams, which create specific care plans for each student's needs. These teams get to the root problems that cause absenteeism and provide the families with necessary resources to resolved it.
TW credits a lot of the success to its wraparound services. These services include on-campus programs such as free afterschool care, tutoring, mentoring, licensed clinical social workers for mental health, eye examinations and glasses, and telehealth care with Waco Family Medicine.
"In 2022-2023, 65% of students who received one or more wraparound service improved their attendance compared to the previous school year,” McDurham stated.
To learn more about Transformation Waco, visit here.
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