By Barry H. Hendrix
Chronic absenteeism in the Thomasville City Schools District has been cut nearly two-thirds (63 percent), said Kate Huggins, school system Attendance Director. There are 3,500 fewer absences over two years.
Huggins gave the Thomasville City Board of Education an Attendance Improvement Report Sept. 8 for the school years: 2023 through 2026.
“We have pushed really hard the last two years to improve attendance,” she said. A few years ago, the school system had “a large amount of chronic truancy issues.” When students even miss more than two days-a-month, they can end up falling a whole year behind in instruction, especially in the lower grades, she said.
“This was a whole group effort, starting first of all, setting guidelines will all the (school administrators). …Then it had to go to the teachers and the attendance clerks enforcing those guidelines. …Teachers really had to keep up with attendance – have they (students) brought in excuses. If there is no excuse, we put a zero.
“…Chronic absence fell from 20.1 percent to 7.5 percent since the 2023-24 school year. Truancy fell from 27 percent to 11.6 percent. Average absences per student fell from 11.1 to 7.9.
“Average unexcused absences per student fell from 5.5 to 2.6 since 2023-24.
“The average Thomasville student now gains about three school days of learning-a year – roughly a half week,” she reported. Approximately 22,665 instructional hours were regained across the district in the 25-26 school year.
“What we are doing is working,” Huggins said.
Data on attendance was developed with the help of Terry Norton, a former educator with the Thomasville system, who is working with the Alabama Department of Education.