By David Cruz
Correspondent
Kids in Newark’s schools face challenges that many of their suburban counterparts don’t, including tough home lives, neighborhood crime and any number of political and ideological battles among the adults with vested interests in the school system. It’s no wonder statistics from a new study by the Advocates for Children of New Jersey shows chronic absenteeism at epidemic levels, not only in Newark, but statewide.
“There are 177 school districts that had more than 10 percent of children chronically absent a year,” said Cecilia Zalkind, executive director of Advocates for Children of New Jersey.
But the school system with the highest rates of absenteeism is the state’s largest — Newark, where nearly 50 percent of high schoolers missed 18 days or more of school. So, who’s most chronically absent?
“Well, it’s called the U-Shape curve,” Zalkind said, referring to a graph of statistics. “We saw that on the state level but also here in Newark. Children who are more likely to be chronically absent are in kindergarten through third grade, so the early years. And then 11th and 12th grade — the high school years.”
Zalkind says — to no great surprise if you follow urban education — kids of color, kids in poor communities and kids with special needs are the ones who tend to miss school the most. In Newark, the district has formed an attendance committee made up of educators and community members to try to tackle the chronic problem of chronic absenteeism. Nana Ofosu-Amaah, who leads the district’s office of early childhood, says they have good idea what’s keeping some of these kids out of school.
“Our early childhood nurses have been talking to families and they are actually seeing cases where families are saying, ‘Oh, they’re only 3, they don’t need to come to school every day. It’s just a baby-sitting service,’” she noted, “so there’s some communication that we need to make sure parents are understanding that standards start at pre-K and they’re all aligned for pre-K to 12 and that if your child misses a year of pre-K or two years of pre-K, they’re going to come into kindergarten behind.”
High schoolers, on the other hand, have a certain amount of autonomy. For one, they get to school on their own, and seniors, especially, are looking ahead to their next phase, and that’s part of where the disconnect begins says Newark Teachers Union President John Abeigon.
“There’s no longer any auto shop; there’s no wood shop; there’s no business training, all of these skills are now outside of the jurisdiction of the Newark Public Schools,” said Abeigon. “And students, I’m not saying that they’re dropping, I say they’re being thrown out because when you offer only college readiness and the student wants to become a plumber, or he wants to become an electrician like his dad, you can talk college readiness until you’re blue in the face.”
Abeigon said a recent court ruling that ordered the district to reinstate 45 attendance counselors fired by the previous superintendent will be a major step forward that has nothing to do with any absenteeism committee.
“The committee will result in absolutely nothing changing,” he said.
This school district has been trying to deal with chronic absenteeism — via committees or task forces — for decades. It’s a job the adults in the district haven’t been able to finish, to the great detriment of students.