NJSCA School Counselors: Implementing Strategies to Improve Attendance
By Dana Kurilew, Jessica Miserentino and Ashley Miranda | May 2024
School counselors are crucial for supporting students’ academic, career, and social/emotional needs. Attendance plays an important role in all three of those areas. When students attend school regularly, they are more likely to succeed academically. Chronic absenteeism has been a topic of increasing concern, especially after the initial phases of COVID-19.
“Chronic absenteeism is pervasive: as many as one in six students in the United States miss enough school to be considered chronically absent, according to the US Department of Education. The negative effects of absenteeism on a student’s education can be profound, and they often carry into adulthood,” reported American University’s School of Education. The National Center for Education Statistics described serious long-term implication of poor attendance: “High school dropouts have been found to exhibit a history of negative behaviors, including high levels of absenteeism throughout their childhood, at higher rates than high school graduates”
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 17.7 percent of dropouts reported, “No one cared if I attended,” which is an entirely preventable problem. As school counselors, it is our job to work with the principal and other building administrators to help combat high attendance rates. The first step for educators is to monitor attendance and follow up on students with weak attendance. One way to do this is to look early in the school year at students' attendance patterns from the previous year and devise plans with those families that have struggled in the past. Often during these phone calls and parent meetings, obstacles to attending school are brought to light. Some obstacles include student embarrassment about clothing, transportation issues, bullying issues, child care concerns and substance abuse. When educators know the source of the issue, we can provide the most useful resources to help students be successful.
The relationship between the school counselor and principal or vice principal is instrumental in student success. School counselors can make a positive difference regarding attendance by assisting with parent follow-up. We can also intervene with school monitoring programs, incentive programs and counseling interventions. Creating meaningful opportunities for student involvement can be life-changing for a student who feels that they do not fit in. School counselors can help students form positive social circles and encourage them by finding leadership positions, activities, clubs and sports that can help them to feel part of the school community.
Resources are another important part of assisting families in need of help. Community resources such as Family Crisis Intervention Unit (FCIU). FCIU provides immediate intervention, assessment, therapy, and case management services in an effort to stabilize the crisis and avoid the need for court involvement and/or placement. In addition to FCIU, educators can connect families with local churches, food banks, the Salvation Army, Catholic Charities, local churches and shelters, or other community agencies that can often provide help to people in need, therefore resulting in better attendance.
Contact Dana Kurilew, NJSCA high school VP, at dkurilew@spboe.org; Jessica Miserentino, a member of NJSCA’s Professional Development Committee, at jmiserentino@rahway.net; and Ashley Miranda, NJSCA member at-large, at ashleymiranda@dvrhs.k12.nj.us.
“Chronic absenteeism is pervasive: as many as one in six students in the United States miss enough school to be considered chronically absent, according to the US Department of Education. The negative effects of absenteeism on a student’s education can be profound, and they often carry into adulthood,” reported American University’s School of Education. The National Center for Education Statistics described serious long-term implication of poor attendance: “High school dropouts have been found to exhibit a history of negative behaviors, including high levels of absenteeism throughout their childhood, at higher rates than high school graduates”
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 17.7 percent of dropouts reported, “No one cared if I attended,” which is an entirely preventable problem. As school counselors, it is our job to work with the principal and other building administrators to help combat high attendance rates. The first step for educators is to monitor attendance and follow up on students with weak attendance. One way to do this is to look early in the school year at students' attendance patterns from the previous year and devise plans with those families that have struggled in the past. Often during these phone calls and parent meetings, obstacles to attending school are brought to light. Some obstacles include student embarrassment about clothing, transportation issues, bullying issues, child care concerns and substance abuse. When educators know the source of the issue, we can provide the most useful resources to help students be successful.
The relationship between the school counselor and principal or vice principal is instrumental in student success. School counselors can make a positive difference regarding attendance by assisting with parent follow-up. We can also intervene with school monitoring programs, incentive programs and counseling interventions. Creating meaningful opportunities for student involvement can be life-changing for a student who feels that they do not fit in. School counselors can help students form positive social circles and encourage them by finding leadership positions, activities, clubs and sports that can help them to feel part of the school community.
Resources are another important part of assisting families in need of help. Community resources such as Family Crisis Intervention Unit (FCIU). FCIU provides immediate intervention, assessment, therapy, and case management services in an effort to stabilize the crisis and avoid the need for court involvement and/or placement. In addition to FCIU, educators can connect families with local churches, food banks, the Salvation Army, Catholic Charities, local churches and shelters, or other community agencies that can often provide help to people in need, therefore resulting in better attendance.
Contact Dana Kurilew, NJSCA high school VP, at dkurilew@spboe.org; Jessica Miserentino, a member of NJSCA’s Professional Development Committee, at jmiserentino@rahway.net; and Ashley Miranda, NJSCA member at-large, at ashleymiranda@dvrhs.k12.nj.us.