2011-2012 Absences

Our school loses $31.33 per school day absence (whether excused or unexcused). The money that is lost directly affects instructional support including school nurse (of which we are down to one day per week), psychologist and teaching staff.

NOTE: we are NOT asking you to bring a sick child to school! We are asking you to make sure if your child isn’t truly sick, that they attend class. We are asking that, if possible, appointments for your children be scheduled later in the day, so the child can be in school as much as possible. Hours lost due to absences can easily add up to days.

The following table and chart shows the amount that is lost and how we’re doing compared to last year.

The message needs to be clearly understood that we don’t want you to bring a sick child to school.  We want you to keep in mind the direct negative impact on learning, as well as the financial loss to our school, when your child misses a day of instruction.  Our school has one of the highest API scores (940 for 2010-2011), because our teachers teach a highly structured and intense course load and frequently test and quiz our children on their understanding of the material.

Recently, the school district has encouraged all schools to examine our unexcused and excused absences and the resulting loss of revenue to our school, at a rate of $31.33 per student per day.  This loss translated into 4,947 absences or $156,325 last year ($31.59 was last year’s loss of revenue per day of absence).  The category of funding lost comes from monies that PATH cannot replenish. PATH cannot hire a Teacher, Nurse, or Psychologist. The $156,325 that was lost last year came directly out of our budget to support these positions, and more.

Some absences clearly are not due to sickness, and these are the absences we are focusing on alleviating entirely. Should you decide to take a child out for an unexcused absence, perhaps one solution is to consider this loss to the school and attempt to offset its impact on the school? You may calculate the number of absences x $31.33.