(Image provided by Appleton Area School District)
Appleton school administrators want to have a better breakdown of student absences.
Whether students have missed a few minutes of a class, or part or all of a day, they’ve been recorded the same way.
Superintendent Judy Baseman says they want to split those situations. She says if students are having a tough time getting to class or school on time, they might need a specific type of support or intervention.
For people missing more significant parts of a school day, there’s a different set of interventions and supports they may need, in order to be in class.
No matter the situation, the district has been tracking them as an unexcused absence. If students get five of them in one semester, they’re considered “habitually truant.”
Twenty-seven percent of high school students reached that level in the first semester. Baseman notes that’s down from 33 percent from the first semester, one year earlier.
Administrators decided to hold a truancy conference with parents for only three percent of high school students last semester.
