It’s the first Wednesday of October, and teachers and administrators hope students will come to school, meaning today is Count Day.
Count Day is the day when each student in class is worth $8,700 in school funding. At Loy Norrix, principal Christopher Aguinaga’s voice over the intercom encourages students to attend. However, teachers and students have mixed feelings about the ways attendance is encouraged.
“I’m not that worried because I know that we have the numbers,” said teacher Samantha Devries. “I know that the students will come within the week, and I already have enough to worry about.”
Likewise, freshman Marta Kellam expressed her lack of concern over the school’s funding.
“I don’t really care at all,” said Kellam. “I don’t really think that small funding changes will affect me much.”
Devries said that she thought the system wasn’t great and could be improved upon.
“It’s too high stakes,” Devries said. “We could have kids get sick, like the flu, and then our funding is based on this.”
Other states use programs such as Average Daily Membership (ADM) and Average Daily Attendance (ADA), which take into account the average number of students at school on a given day. Both Kellam and Devries thought this was a better option than the current system. However, many other things are also changing the view on Count Day and school attendance.
According to the article Higher Chronic Absenteeism Threatens Academic Recovery from the COVID-19 Pandemic, written by Thomas S. Dee on OSF, “The rate of absenteeism and chronic absenteeism has nearly doubled since the pandemic.”
“I had a student last year who was gone for 90 days, and it was just almost a kind of apathy about attending school and thinking of school as optional,” Devries said.
Schools are trying to find ways to counteract this. This year, Aguinaga went around giving donuts to classes that had every student present on Count Day. However, Kellam doesn’t think rewarding is the right option.
“Showing up to school is just a basic. You [students] need to do that,” Kellam said.
Devries doesn’t think rewarding is bad but believes that there may exist alternative ways to encourage attendance.
Devries said, “To encourage you [students] I don’t think it’s the worst idea. I wish we didn’t have to do that…but it doesn’t hurt to have a day where you know you’re going to get a special treat because you guys work hard.”
Donuts may be a tasty treat, but they aren’t what brings kids to school. Kellam thinks another reason for the higher absenteeism in students is the environment within Loy Norrix.
“I have a lot of teachers who are pretty boring. My classes are really boring here. I don’t feel excited to learn. I don’t feel engaged in class. I’d rather be at home,” Kellam said. “Just creating a more comfortable and exciting environment for kids to want to come to school and be here.”
Issues such as the COVID-19 pandemic have had a massive impact on the school as voiced by both teachers and students.
“It [the pandemic] is going to cause a dramatic impact on attendance in the next few years,” said Devries. “It could get even worse if people don’t get back to a normal school calendar.”
