How can you have a shortage of teachers in San Fran? They have a significant decline in enrollment. But bigger than that, is that students are no longer showing up in class.
“San Francisco’s chronic absenteeism rates tick slightly higher than the state average, at 33%.
When you have fewer students, and those remaining have a 1/3 absentee rate, the question is not why the kids don’t show up—we know the answer.
When classes are based on racism and sexual grooming, kids know that racism is wrong and they do not need instruction in sex by perverts. The students want an education—and going to a San Fran school is not an education for the future—it is an education on how to destroy the future.
Teacher turnover tied to chronic absenteeism at S.F. public schools
By Allyson Aleksey, SF Examiner, 1/3/23
San Francisco public schools don’t have the resources they need to address high rates of chronic absenteeism, so the state’s Department of Education is stepping in.
According to the District Readiness Index, which compiles data to assess California school districts’ ability to improve student outcomes, San Francisco Unified School District lacks the foundations needed to keep students in the classroom and learning.
Specifically, teacher turnover is higher than the national average, with a quarter of teachers leaving their schools in the 2017-18 school year. As of 2018-19, teachers without a full credential were more concentrated in the district’s highest needs schools, where chronic absenteeism is significantly higher than the state and national average, towering at 90% in some schools.
Although the causes of chronic absenteeism are multi-faceted, with many of them being beyond a school’s control, the California Department of Education (CDE) is calling attention to the problem by focusing on how educators and staff can positively affect attendance. A chief obstacle is a district’s ability to hire and retain quality staff — a burden that has afflicted SFUSD since the start of the school year.
“We’ve seen declining enrollment and staffing (in the state). Staff shortages have been long on the horizon and were happening pre-pandemic,” said state Deputy Superintendent Malia Vella.
Chronic absenteeism is defined as missing 10% of instructional days, or 18 days, whether excused or unexcused. Across the state, chronic absenteeism doubled from 14% in the 2020-21 school year to 30% the next year, according to the CDE.
CDE information officer Scott Roark noted, “This reflects a national trend. For other states, the chronic absenteeism rate was 32% in Florida, 30% in Ohio and 38% in Michigan.”
San Francisco’s chronic absenteeism rates tick slightly higher than the state average, at 33%.
Educators and school officials have called attention to the issue of staffing shortages pre- and post-pandemic. San Francisco’s teacher’s union criticized the Board of Education’s budget decisions in late December 2021, warning that budget cuts will affect much-needed positions like social workers, community school coordinators and family liaisons — key staff members in combating chronic absenteeism, according to CDE guidance.
When the Board of Education discussed budget outlooks during the last meeting of 2022, fiscal expert Elliott Duchon, assigned by the CDE to assist the district with spending, stressed the importance of exploring the causes of teacher shortages.
“I recognize that (SFUSD) has a severe staffing issue, in terms of getting permanent staff. It probably doesn’t help to know (SFUSD) is not alone and that everyone in the state is encountering this. But it’s your role as board members to understand the how,” he said.
SFUSD began the school year with over 100 unfilled teaching positions, and now has at least 400 unfilled positions across all departments. Because of staffing shortages, high rates of chronic absenteeism and low proficiency in math and reading, the CDE has flagged the district as needing differentiated assistance to address the problem.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond said in a statement to school district supervisors that students with disabilities, students of color and from socioeconomically disadvantaged communities experience significantly higher rates of absenteeism. Of the total number of SFUSD students who are chronically truant, 64% are African American, 58% are Native American, 47% are Hispanic/Latino, 20% are white and 9% are Asian.
The CDE is partnering with Attendance Works, a national nonprofit that promotes awareness of absenteeism, to provide resources for districts to address it.
Hedy Chang, the organization’s executive director and a resident of San Francisco, has studied the causes and effects of absenteeism since 2006. The issue is not new, she said, and many barriers existed long before the pandemic.
“Illness and lack of access to health care have always been barriers. But certainly during the pandemic, it became a much more significant barrier,” she said.
SFUSD saw the greatest dips in attendance during COVID surges in September and January of the 2021-22 school year, SFUSD press officer Laura Dudnick said. To limit further absences, the district implemented COVID contact tracing methods in March 2022, which gave students access to testing in school and allowed them to remain in the classroom if they did not develop symptoms.
Chang and Vella both noted that vaccines were not available for students aged 5 through 11 until November 2021, which likely contributed to higher rates of students missing more than 18 days of school in the 2021-22 school year.
Districts across the state also had to grapple with higher rates of mental wellness issues post-pandemic.
“When kids miss a lot of school, they’re having trouble coming back, either because they don’t or didn’t connect to peers, or they lost out on learning important concepts.” Chang said.
This is where wellness centers and mental health coaches are essential. Superintendent Thurmond visited the families of chronically absent students and worked with attendance counselors to see why children were missing class.
“Almost every student that that he spoke with was experiencing anxiety or depression, some of it related to the economic stresses,” Vella said, adding that in addressing learning loss associated with chronic absenteeism, “We’re asking a lot more of our educators to make sure that students are keeping up with the material, and that they’re able to teach to every student.”
The CDE recommends having each student connected to “at least one caring adult in the building,” and that “educators spend at least two minutes every day for 10 consecutive days” with students experiencing ongoing truancy.
“Schools are the primary response and support for a student and their family’s attendance needs,” Dudnick said.
When a student misses six unexcused days of school, coordinated care teams are advised to schedule family meetings to engage in support planning.
“Based on that collaborative meeting with the family and school team, support plans can be created. The family determines the support that they need and the school does its best to address the needs that are related to education and then connect to other community resources for additional support or needs outside of the district’s purview,” she said.
There is money available to districts to support wellness centers, hire more teacher aides and paraprofessionals and access tools to improve attendance. This includes the state’s $4.7 billion investment in Mental Health access, called the Master Plan for Kid’s Mental Health, a 13% increase in local control funding and a $2.7 billion investment in transitional kindergarten.
“California has put in billions of dollars since the start of the pandemic. And so it’s not really that we don’t have money, it’s how do we make the most of the dollars that we do have so that we can see the results that our students deserve,” Vella said.
SFUSD and the board of education will host a budget workshop on Feb. 7, and beginning Jan. 18, the CDE and Attendance Works will co-host a series of webinars that describe the resources and funding available to school districts. Chang will be the first guest speaker.
“Certainly, there has been some correlation between higher teacher absenteeism and higher student absenteeism. It would make sense, because it’s relationships that are so important, and teachers create those positive conditions for learning,” Chang said.
