LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — With boots on the ground, advocating for students and providing resources to families, the Lake County Office of Education attendance liaisons work hard to improve attendance in Lake County schools.
The Office of Education’s new program, Communities for School Success, was implemented in partnership with Lake County school districts to address the high chronic absenteeism rates in Lake County schools. Chronic absenteeism is defined as missing two or more days of school, excused or unexcused, a month.
Angie DeMaria, a former Teacher at Terrace Middle School in Lakeport, is responsible for the implementation of this program and overseeing a staff of seven attendance liaisons.
An attendance liaison is an individual who works directly with students to find solutions to improve their attendance rates. Each liaison is assigned to a single school district.
Since the start of the 2021-22 school year, the attendance liaisons have reached out to 675 K-12 Lake County students. Of those students contacted, 65% of them showed improvement in their attendance.
“When students improve their attendance rates, they improve their academic prospects and chances for graduating,” said Lake County Superintendent of Schools Brock Falkenberg.
Students who are chronically absent are more likely to be behind in core subjects and drop out of school.
"I had a student that had an attendance rate of 53% in September. I worked with the school to enroll them in an alternate education program. Since enrollment in November, their attendance rate has been 100 percent,” said Attendance Liaison Brianna Kauble.
Barriers that are preventing regular school attendance include trauma, transportation, cultural differences or even students not finding school engaging or fun.
“Upon our first site visit, it was clear that the student had a major disconnect from school,” said another attendance liaison, Reyna Looney. “With incentives in place, the student has not missed a day of school for any reason since the 15th of November.”
Attendance Liaison Natahsa McKenny said COVID-19 has created anxiety and depression for students due to distance learning. Coming back to campus was not an easy transition for them.
“There are two students that stand out the most. Both were having anxiety about being back on campus. They made the decision to transfer to the continuation school. Since the students have made the transfer, they have gone to school every day and seem much happier,” McKenny said.
This Learning Communities for School Success program is a partnership between the Lake County Office of Education and the Lake County school districts and is grant funded through the California Department of Education.
For more information on attendance, visit www.lakecoe.org/Attendance.
Partnership tackles absenteeism in schools
- Lake County Office of Education
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