Chronic absenteeism is a growing problem for schools across Winnipeg, but administrators are taking action in an effort to reverse the trend.
Matt Henderson, superintendent of the Winnipeg School Division, told 680 CJOB’s The Start around 2,500 of the division’s students, of a 31,000-strong population, are absent at least 10 per cent of the time.
Henderson said the division is working with school staff to identify students who need an extra push to come to school, and making sure they have everything they need to succeed — scholastically and otherwise — when they do attend.
Recent statistics, he said, show a trend across North America that kids who don’t graduate from high school don’t live as long as kids who do — a ‘sobering statistic’, and a problem that extends well beyond a single school district.
“Sometimes it’s not even a decision (to attend school) because of things happening in the community, because of things happening in the home,” he said.
“We need to change the status quo here. Schools can’t do everything, but we can do some things really, really well,” he said.
“Part of that is… how do we ensure that kids are at our schools from eight in the morning until six at night? Because if they’re not in school, somebody else is trying to sell them something.”
Kids being in school, Henderson said, is important when it comes to creating a healthy and thriving community, and offering nutrition programs and after school activities are ways the division — Winnipeg’s largest — can try to improve attendance.
“Some of the things that we’re doing right now is ramping up our nutrition programs — feeding kids breakfast, feeding them lunch,” he said.
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“We’re partnering with (local organizations) to offer after school programming at more and more schools so that kids can have a dinner and then be around healthy adults.”
The division is looking south at the success of the Chicago School System for inspiration. Once considered among the worst districts in the entire United States, the system was able to create a drastic turnaround by focusing on students as they began high school.
“They came together as an entire school district in Chicago to say, ‘we’ve got to focus on kids in Grade 9,'” Henderson said.
“They kept bringing all of their teachers together, every single week and slowly but surely their schools started to improve, kids were coming, and their graduation rates popped up.”
A downwards trend
The Seven Oaks School Division is also contending with its own bout of absenteeism. But assistant superintendent Jennifer McGowan said the numbers are going back down to pre-pandemic levels. She added that there could be barriers for some in attending school regularly, such as generational poverty for the families of children affected.
The first point of contact, she said, when there’s a child who struggles to show up to class every day is their teacher and educational assistants, and connecting with the family.
“It really is just about working with the family to support them and to celebrate them, and to connect with them on a relational level. To encourage (a) relationship between the school, the community, and the family,” said McGowan.
She also noted that chronic absenteeism can have negative implications on a child’s life, including with their ability to obtain employment or further education down the line and building connections with those around them.
A space for more than just academics
For community outreach worker Mitch Bourbonniere, a child not being in school is a huge indicator of being at risk.
“I work with at-risk youth. Some of the youth I work with have had trouble getting to school and maintaining that structure, that routine. Because there’s all kinds of challenges in their lives… they might have a negative school experience, academically or socially, that prevents them from going,” Bourbonniere said.
He noted that there are barriers for those unable to go to school or maintain a structure of attending school regularly. These can include struggling with anxiety or depression, having to care for their loved one, or just not feeling good at a particular school.
Every child who doesn’t go to school, he said, knows that it’s not good for them. But it’s not enough to motivate them to go to school on that alone, he added.
“What what I will say is that schools are foundational. They are crucial in the well-being of young people,” said Bourbonniere, highlighting how schools should be more than just a space for academics.
“They need to be safe spaces. They need to be welcoming places. They need to have folks in those buildings that will know every child, every at-risk child, and will wrap around them and and provide something in that building that will draw that child back into the building.”
— with files from Global’s Marney Blunt.
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