Officials: Absenteeism an emerging problem

Absenteeism is emerging as a problem in Clovis schools, according to school officials.

CMS Superintendent Renee Russ said the problem is local as well as across the state and the country.

“Habits of poor attendance escalated during the pandemic,” Russ said. “Addressing chronic absenteeism is one of the greatest challenges we are facing post-pandemic.”

Russ said adequate academic gains are difficult to achieve when students aren’t attending regularly.

Russ said the community experiences an effect of chronic absenteeism when children who should be in school are “roaming around unsupervised rather than learning at school.”

Russ said families and the community can contribute toward recovering student learning loss and dealing with absenteeism significantly is ensuring all children are present at school “each and every day.”

“We have a team of district personnel who partner with students and families to promote and improve school attendance,” Russ said.

Russ said CMS has what she called a “multi-tiered intervention plan” devoted to addressing attendance concerns, which aligns with state statutory requirements.

Senior Director of Student Nutrition and Well-Being Debbie Westbrook oversees CMS’ attendance program and personnel. Westbrook will be presenting a chronic attendance update covering the first 40 days of school at Tuesday’s CMS school board meeting. Westbrook declined to provide statistics related to the absenteeisms. She said that information would be provided at Tuesday’s school board meeting. That session starts at 5:30 p.m. at the school administration building in Clovis at 10th and Main streets.

Westbrook said CMS is working diligently to find ways to incentivize attendance through learning activities, celebration assemblies to recognize students that meet their goals, and school-wide incentives for students that have good daily attendance.

“One thing we know,” Westbrook said. “If students attend school daily, they have a better chance of being a successful learner.”

The situation appears to be different in Portales schools.

Portales Superintendent Johnnie Cain said he is not aware of an absentee problem in his school system.

“Not that I know of,” Cain said. “I’m not aware of it.”