The district also pledged to collaborate with community partners like the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services to ensure that students and families at risk of chronic absence were having their basic needs met.įrom 2017 to 2019, the rate of chronically absent students dropped from 70% to 62%. The plan included a new code of conduct that reduced the use of out-of-school suspensions and increased staffing for the district’s Attendance Intervention Team, assigning one attendance agent to each DPSCD school. “I think there’s this impression that Detroit parents don’t care about school, and that could not be further from the truth,” said Sarah Lenhoff, an associate professor at Wayne State University’s College of Education, adding: “Families want their kids to be in school.” Pandemic reversed a positive trend in attendanceĭetroit’s 2018-19 attendance plan laid the groundwork for a holistic approach to improving attendance through wraparound services for students. Researchers say the figures are further evidence that the district needs to do more to address the broad range of causes for Detroit’s long struggles with absenteeism, including socioeconomic and transportation factors. In the latest school year, 77% of Detroit Public Schools Community District students were chronically absent, meaning they missed at least 10% of school days, Vitti reported at the July board meeting. The district can’t move forward in its academic recovery efforts if students don’t consistently attend school, Vitti said, because “chronic absenteeism directly impacts districtwide and school level enrollment, which impacts funding and student achievement.” They involve broadening the circle of district and school officials with responsibility for monitoring student attendance, using data to understand the “challenges that prevent school attendance and then working to resolve those concerns as a team,” Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said. The measures are aimed at bolstering an attendance plan that was showing some success in reducing chronic absenteeism rates before the pandemic struck. To further protect students, DPSCD will have a testing mandate for students starting at the end of January.Ĭlick here to view the announcement to parents.Ĭopyright 2022 by WDIV ClickOnDetroit - All rights reserved.Detroit school district officials are planning more aggressive steps to reverse a rise in chronic absenteeism, a huge obstacle to their efforts to help students recover academically from the impact of the pandemic. The district currently tests about 60% of their students a week. Vitti said a vaccine mandate is likely for next school year, but right now they are focusing on testing every student. Students who still need laptops to do virtual learning will be able to pick them up at their school starting Thursday. “We’re below 50%, where other large urban school districts or cities, like Baltimore, Cleveland, DC, Oakland, are, you know, 70%, 80%,” Vitti said.ĭetroit public schools will open IT, homework and a mental health hotline for families. The problem is when you’re at 40% the spread is so wide and so deep that inevitably you’re going to have positive cases,” Vitti said.Īnother factor the district considers is Detroit’s vaccination rate. “Even if we see higher numbers like 10%, 15% (infection rate) we can stay open with 100% universal testing. Vitti said he understands and wants students back in the classroom, but with the number of COVID cases in Detroit testing is not enough. The move could also be difficult for parents who aren’t working from home. Some parents understand safety measures have to be taken, but said their child learn better when in a classroom. He said opening schools while the city has a 40% infection rate is an “operational nightmare” for the district. “We just have to work through this difficult surge right now,” superintendent Dr. Read: Detroit Public Schools Community District goes all virtual through Jan. The announcement comes after classes were canceled so staff could get tested for COVID. 14, in hopes the number of COVID cases will be down by then. DETROIT – Leaders of the state’s largest school district, Detroit Public Schools Community District, made the call to keep all 50,000 students home until Jan.
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