Case
Consistent checkouts

A child constantly checks out prior to class on quiz and test days. He often misses many other days. The attendance clerk enters the following excuses on a regular basis: illness, dentist, early dismissal, etc. Parents have been contacted consistently to no avail. Dad works out of town all week, mom works for DFACS, and grandma is the one giving permission for the child to check out of school. Mom has come to parent conference - only because dad made her, but nothing has changed. He is extremely smart but applies himself very, very little. Despite many one-on-one conversations about his potential, he is failing 6 out of 7 classes. What do we do as educators when our children are failing because we have so little parent support?

Posted on: 03/14/15 | Views: 925
Solution #1
I have this exact same problem with so many of the seniors that I teach. The best course of action I have found is to talk to the student one on one. I try to find out what is going on outside or in school that is causing them to miss so many days. The parental connection is not there to provide you help, so I try to get the student to talk to me and try to find something that would motivate them to come to school. This is a tough one and talking to them only works with certain students. It is worth a try though.

Talking to the student one-on-one is important. Who knows what else is going on at home. Great solution!

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Solution #2
If you have spoken with the students, parents, counselor, and administrator, you may have to ask the counselor about doing a social worker referral. My team and I encountered this last year with a student. After making every attempt to curb the consistent (almost daily) checkouts, unfortunately, we had to do a social worker referral. Although we did not want to go to that extreme, it did decrease the checkouts and the students grade began to increase, as the student and parents were being monitored.
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Solution #3
This is a difficult situation because we cannot control our students' households. However, using reinforcements whether negative or positive can help. For example, at my school we see parents appear from out of the woodwork when we serve dinner or refreshments at a school event such as parent conferences or PTA meeting. Also, tickets to different events around the city and coupons to eateries help as well. The only negative reinforcement I can think of without you getting into trouble is threatening retention due to attendance and missing grades.
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Solution #4
Sometimes it seems as though our hands are tied. Are there excuses being brought back for these check outs? At our school our counselor turns students names in to truancy court who are not at school and their grades are being affected because of this. The parents will have to sign a truancy agreement and then if they fail to abide by that the parents could be fined or do jail time. It seems that these parents need to be held accountable for their child's education.
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