Early
School Start Impact on Attendance
Quarter
of a Million Students
Absent the First Day of School
Texas
schools lost $7.5 million in state funding due to high absentee
rate
(San
Antonio) On the first day of school last year, approximately
250,000 students – over five percent of all Texas school
children – were not in class, according to recent data issued by
Texans for a Traditional School Year.
Tina Bruno,
spokesperson for the group, says poor attendance not only means
students are not receiving the benefit of 180 days of instruction,
but it creates havoc in the classroom and reduces the amount of
money the school district receives in state funding.
Gary Price, a
research analyst for the Office of the Texas Comptroller agreed
with Bruno. "Poor attendance does effect a district's total
revenue," he said. According to the Texas Education Agency,
schools lose approximately $29.00 per student per day absent from
school. "If school districts were paid every day, Texas
school districts would have lost about $7.5 million in 1999 due to
high absenteeism on the first day of school alone," Bruno
said.
Bruno said she is
not comfortable making the assumption that an early-August school
start date is totally to blame for the high absentee rate, due to
the lack of historical data available. “It is premature to
make any leaps saying starting school later produces better
attendance, but according to the teachers we hear from, first week
of school attendance has gotten worse as school starts earlier,”
she said.
Numbers around
the state support the theory. According to data available on
the San Antonio Independent School District web site, absenteeism
was reduced two percentage points this year, as the district
enjoyed a week later school start date.
A report in the
Fort Worth Star Telegram said Fort Worth Independent School
District, which started school a week later this year, also
reported higher attendance the first day of school.
Officials from the district credited the later start of school
with better attendance this year.
Bruno said Texans
for a Traditional School Year started looking into the problem
after receiving telephone calls from teachers voicing concern. She
said the concerns were basically the same: "Teachers told us
many students do not enroll prior to Labor Day and those who do
are often kept behind by unstable, constantly changing classes.”
"We expected
attendance data to be readily available," said Bruno.
"I was surprised to find it wasn’t. I hope
school boards will take a look at the their districts’
attendance data for the past few years before setting this next
year’s calendar.”
The region with
the greatest percentage of students not in school on the first day
was Region 1, representing Brownsville, Hildago, Mission, Laredo
and surrounding areas. Cumulatively, the data shows that 13.15
percent of Region 1 students are not in school the first day. The
greater Houston area, or Region 4, came in a close second with
9.55 percent of students not in attendance.
"The fact
that the Houston area has such a great absentee rate shows that is
not just a problem for areas with a large migrant
population," said Bruno. "This is a statewide problem
that needs to be dealt with."
Topping the
charts with over 30 percent of the student body being absent on
the first day or more of school are Ingram ISD, Dickinson ISD and
Hildalgo ISD.
Houston ISD
reported 17.5 percent absent with Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD,
Harlandale ISD, Brownsville ISD, Royal ISD and Levelland ISD all
reporting more than 10 percent of the student body absent the
first day or more of school.
Texans for a
Traditional School Year announced their findings today after
tallying the data they received from school districts across the
state. Data was received from 356 of the 1,042 requests sent and
represents 47 percent of the student body in Texas. The data was
collected via public information requests to each school district.
The group asked school districts to provide attendance numbers for
the first day of school and every day through October 1st.
Based on the data
collected, the statewide absentee rate for the first day of school
was 5.53 percent in 1999. The group then multiplied that
percentage by the total number of students enrolled in public
schools, and determined that approximately 250,000 students were
absent across the state.
Bruno said their
research doesn't show the same problem from September 1- October
1. She added that the difference in attendance was less than one
quarter of a percent.
Texans for a
Traditional School Year is a grassroots, educational organization
of parents, teachers, administrators and business leaders
concerned about the negative impact of the early August school
start date on students, teachers and families. The group can be
reached toll-free at 877-531-9011.
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