WCSD says new attendance law is working well

WASHINGTON — Washington’s schools say their attendance numbers are substantially improved in the first school year after state lawmakers passed a bill cracking down on chronic absenteeism.

Districtwide chronic absenteeism — the percentage of kids who miss at least 10% of their classes — by Nov. 1 of this year was around 9%, according to Superintendent Willie Stone. That’s only half of the 18% reported at the same time in 2023. Washington’s number this year is also lower than the state average (12%) and the Grant Wood AEA region average (11%).

The most staggering change happened at Washington’s Middle School, where chronic absenteeism fell from 21% to 9% in the last year, according to Stone, while the high school went from 25% to 14%.

The impact was less pronounced, but still noticeable, at Stewart Elementary, which includes grades K-2, and saw chronic absenteeism drop from 15% to 10%. The district’s current best attendance rate is at Lincoln Elementary, which contains grades 3-5, and went from 12% to 3% chronic absenteeism.

“This is something good that legislation has done for us,” Stone said at a school board meeting last week. “It’s been a dog trying to figure out how to get everything done with it, we have people that are really busting their tail trying to keep up with letters and talk with kids and create IEPs, but it has really helped our attendance overall.”

Under the newly enacted state law, students get Individualized Education Programs once they miss 10% of their classes in a given grading period like a semester. At that point, the district also sends a letter to parents and notifies the county attorney. The legislation also allows schools to revoke open enrollment for students who are chronically absent.

The reform aimed to get kids to school more regularly, as education experts warned of students struggling to keep up with their peers after missing cumulatively crucial lessons, especially in early grade levels where they learned how to read, and basic fundamentals of arithmetic.

State Rep. Heather Hora, a Republican who represents Washington County and is on the Iowa House Education Committee, said she was glad to see the new law’s positive impact.

“Last session, they brought it to us that one in four kids in Iowa were chronically absent, and that that absenteeism was tied to difficulty in learning,” she said. “I think we’ll probably go back and tweak a few little things, but I think it is working the way we hoped it would.”

Asked about what those tweaks might entail, Hora said she’d heard complaints from families in some districts where rules were stricter than state law required, and said lawmakers could consider limits on how far schools could go.

She also said the state may also need a more clear definition of “excused absences” which do not county toward a student’s absenteeism rates. Hora suggested language that allowed kids to leave class for farm work.

“Especially in the ag community, there’s a little bit of heartburn with kids wanting to go home and needing to go home to help on the farm,” she said. “We might go in and adjust that, I can’t say that we will … we’ll just have to sit down, talk about it, and decide what we will do going forward.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com