Last month, City Connects Coordinator Omega Robinson was featured in a Mirror Indy news article because of her work addressing chronic absenteeism at the Sankofa School of Success in Indianapolis, Ind.
It’s an example of how City Connects’ work fits into Sankofa’s philosophy of providing a supportive education and also supports the Indiana Legislature’s goal of keeping students in school.
In Indiana, chronic absenteeism is defined as missing more than 10 percent of the school year. And as the article explains, poor attendance has grown since the pandemic:
“Last school year, about 20% of students in Indiana were considered chronically absent, according to data from the Indiana Department of Education. That number is almost twice that of the 2018-19 school year, the last year untouched by the coronavirus pandemic. Absenteeism was already high in some schools before the pandemic, but it skyrocketed in schools across the country as students returned from remote learning.”
“Sankofa, which has absenteeism rates double those of state averages, reached a peak 70% chronic absenteeism rate in the 2020-21 school year following the pandemic-driven school closures.”
A new state law covering students in kindergarten through sixth grade, calls on schools to address absenteeism.
Sankofa is doing this work based on its mission of being “a collaborative school community” that meets students’ needs through “mindfulness and trauma-informed care.”
This approach is also central to the work of City Connects coordinators. That’s why Robinson proceeds with care. As the article explains, she “sends home letters, makes phone calls and meets with families in person so she can learn what’s happening behind the scenes that can affect a student’s attendance. She said she often looks to help families with bus passes or referrals to community services, such as grief counseling, for those in need of support beyond what a school can offer.”
As Robinson herself explains in the article, “It just goes back to having those conversations with those families and trying to catch it before it gets too far.”
“It’s not a thing of trying to point my finger. I’m coming into the conversation so we can come up with a plan, trying to work alongside our families.”
Setting shame aside and focusing on solutions is a vital part of how all City Connects coordinators do their work. Working with families is another strategy that has helped improve students’ lives in many ways, from improving attendance to helping students access needed services to helping them access summer camps and music lessons.
We’re excited to see more City Connects schools provide the support it takes to encourage students to have strong attendance. As Sankofa’s Assistant Head of School Laurie Hargrove says in the article, “We try to incentivize it here and get students excited about being at school. Because if they’re excited about what we’re doing here, they’re not going to want to miss a day.”
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