As the first full month of school wrapped up, the school community at Hugh B. Bain Middle School is cautiously optimistic about attendance this year. Chronic absenteeism (defined as 10 percent of more of the school year -- or 18 days per year) has been at an all time high since the pandemic.

“Although attendance has always been an issue before the pandemic, and always a district priority, the issue of getting kids back into school post-pandemic has reached unprecedented levels,” said Cranston Public Schools’ District Dean of Students, Vincent Turchetta. “We have had to really sit down with our district data and with our school leaders and come up with definitive plans for how to tackle the attendance issue.”

Both Turchetta and Sean Kelly, the district’s strategic planning and accountability officer, have been working with all of the district’s schools to emphasize a renewed commitment to increasing attendance in school.

“Our first goal is to ensure that every school in Cranston has an up and running attendance team to address each student individually and come up with an Individualized attendance plan for each of them,” Turchetta said.

Hugh B. Bain Principal Keith Croft has seen great results already this year, thanks in part to the school’s new Attendance Task Force, although he says that attendance has always been an issue and a priority throughout his tenure as principal.

“It got trickier with Covid, but it’s always been a focus for us,” he said.

To that end, Bain takes multiple opportunities throughout the week to discuss students and the issues that may be affecting their ability to be successful in school. They also work with families and students to assist them in their efforts to get to school on time, every day.

“Each Friday we have a team that meets including a school administrator, our social emotional support staff such as our school psychologist, guidance counselors, our special education chairperson and our school nurse,” Croft said. “Then, each Wednesday afternoon for about 20-25 minutes, the new Attendance Task Force meets after school and includes our special education chairperson, our social emotional support staff, and members of our administrative team.”

He said at each meeting the focus is clear.

“Our very first topic is attendance. We go right down the sheet and create a specific response for a person on the team to find out why each student is missing school,” he said. “We have a procedure as the absences increase too. With four absences a letter is mailed from the guidance office. After eight absences a letter is sent out from an assistant principal. With ten absences a letter is sent out from the principal. This year our data is good. We are reaching between 90-100% of our students to at least find out why they are absent and to see what we can do to help them. Families know that we are trying to help them and to guide them through their attendance issue.”

Croft said that once a family has been reached, the school team works together with them to try to problem-solve to address the issue and to see whether it is something like a transportation issue, a medical issue, or something else.

While in school, attendance is a focus for staff and students alike, with the emphasis of being in school on time, all day, every day that someone is well. To help drive that message home, positive tactics have been implemented right at the start of the school year.

“The Attendance Task Force implemented friendly competitions,” Croft said. “We started with a competition between homerooms. Whichever homeroom had perfect attendance of staff and students who were in and in on time for the full four-day week, they would receive an ice cream party.”

That first competition was so well received that a new competition has been implemented, a two-week competition between teams within the school. Whichever team has the best two week attendance record at the end of the two weeks will have free time on a Friday afternoon in the future where they will have the ability to choose activities to participate in during that time.

Croft cites student engagement as a major factor in promoting good attendance in school and he’s proud of the trend his school is on so far this year.

“We know we are doing something right when students are coming to school because they want to be here and they know we want them to be here, in the classroom, every day,” he said.

He did note that one of the big issues he encounters each year with families and attendance is the high levels of absenteeism due to travel outside of the designated school vacation weeks.

“Families will often travel to see their extended families outside of school vacations. Parents inform us that their children will not be in school for a number of weeks,” he said. “This happens all the time. If we could just curb that issue, we’d be in a better place as a whole with attendance.”

“Chronic absenteeism amounts to just two missed days of school per month, no matter what the reason,” said Kelly. “Research has shown that students who are chronically absent, no matter what grade they are in, see a long-lasting educational impact. It’s our responsibility and our priority to make sure that our students are in school because if they’re not in school, they can’t learn.”