Photo: Reno Laithienne | Unsplash
In the Los Angeles suburbs and in Nashville, educators are using church cookouts and gas money to reverse levels of chronic absenteeism that have reached 40% in New York City and Los Angeles. In California, the local Boys and Girls Club has become an extension of the Buena Park School District's response. Elsie Briseo Simonovski, director of student and community services, sometimes scours apartment complexes with granola bars in her pockets to find children, and escorts families to gas stations to fill up their cars. Schools showing the most improvement get ceremonies with balloons, certificates, and trays of treats. In Metro Nashville Public Schools, where chronic absenteeism is now 30%, staff recently gathered at a local Baptist church for grilled hot dogs and hamburgers, served as DJs spun family-friendly tunes, and offered information on Covid-19 vaccines, housing, and transportation aid. Education researchers say such "attendance value-added" measures are much more effective than traditional strategies.
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