December 1, 2025 • 23 mins
Join Cindy and Alison as they highlight the impacts of chronic absenteeism on children's development and learning, as well as strategies to combat this national epidemic.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to How Preschool Teachers Do It.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
I'm Cindy, I'm Alison, and we have a combined fifty
five years of experience working with children, families, and experts
in early education. We are not random influence. No, we
are not. Whether you are new or have been our
podcast peeps since twenty eighteen, we are thrilled you found us. Hey,
(00:26):
preschool peeps, we're back, maybe pep here. We are talking
about a really serious topic today, right, pretty serious and
I don't know that people always take it seriously, but
we're going to tell you why you should take it
seriously and maybe share this episode widely with educators and
especially families.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Right, but before we get into that, Alison, as she
always does, has some news to share with us about
who is listening to and or watching this podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Yes, it's very exciting because we are shouting out that
Dominican Republic today. That's a place we've never shouted out before.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
We haven't shouted out the Dominican Republic.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
No, so super excited that you're here. And we are
also shouting out Potomac, Maryland.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Where I have been. You have been there, and I
have a family who's from from there. Originally. Yeah, so
that's exciting.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
I lived in Maryland for a little while there, but
not in Potomac.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
It's very nice.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Yeah, yeah, is that I don't know. If that's close,
I don't think so.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Now all the Maryland people are gonna be like, they're
debating our state. Now, let's give them some information, solid information,
because we don't have any obviously, but we Maryland is
a place that we frequently frequent Yeah, yeah, frequently frequented.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Yeah, you can tell that it's today is a fresh
recording day, early in the morning.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Probably we are recording earlier than we usually do so
and on a day we normally.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Don't all of it.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
We're all mixed up today.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
And we are here to talk about a pretty serious topic.
We both of us, in our separate work worlds, have
we discovered. We were having conversations with people about the
absenteeism in preschool and how people sometimes just think it's
only preschool, what's the big deal. You don't have to
(02:17):
go all the time, Like, what's the big deal, You're
too young to worry about that or whatever. So I
want to first define for everyone what is chronic absenteeism.
So that you understand who we're talking about or what
situations we're talking about. And then we're going to get
into some statistics and reasons why chronic absenteeism is actually
(02:39):
an issue for the children who are attending preschool programs.
So first, let's define chronic absenteeism. Everywhere we look, We've
looked at multiple sources. Everywhere we look, chronic absenteeism has
been defined as missing at least ten percent of the
(03:00):
academic year. So you have to look at how many
days or in your acamademic year, what is ten percent
of that? People who are missing more than that number
can be considered children with chronic abscentiism.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
I would think if you're going to school, like from
September to June, that's ten months. Ten percent would be
missing a whole month.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Is that correct?
Speaker 1 (03:24):
I'm not good at math, but is that correct? It
would be basically missing a month a month thirty days
of school.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
And we know that there are families who maybe originate
from other countries and they'll take their children out for
a month or two to go and visit where they're visiting.
And I want to tell you that we fully understand
that I'm gonna give this a little disclaimer. We fully
understand why you would do that. The question is are
you keeping up with what the early Childhood program is
(03:50):
doing while you go and visit your family and your
country of origin. I remember having families who would come
to us when I was a teacher, when I was
a program director, and they would say things like, we
are going back to our home country for six weeks.
And we had some families who said, what can you
(04:12):
give me to do with my child while we're gone?
And then I remember there were people who said, oh, no,
just go enjoy your time, don't worry about it. That's
not a good response, and we're about to tell you why.
When people ask you to bring things so that they
can continue their child's education, it's very important. Even when
people don't ask you to say to them, would you
like any things from us to continue what we've been
(04:34):
working on with your child? Let them decide. We're going
to tell you the impact of children having chronic absenteeism,
and you all can take that and decide what you're
going to do with it. So there are many impacts.
It turns out that there's one statistic that shows that
starting as early as preschool in kindergarten, chronic absence can
(04:55):
leave third graders unable to read proficiently, sixth graders struggling
with coursework, and high school students off track for graduation,
and that even more importantly, it impacts social and emotional
development and makes it hard to ready gain the habit
of showing up for things. It makes it hard to
lay a foundation for later success, not only in school
(05:17):
but also in the workplace, because the understanding that you
need to show up for your obligations is that foundation
is set in the early childhood years. We talk all
the time in this profession about how important our jobs
are because we are laying a foundation that's going to
stay with that child. And we are building brains. We
(05:38):
are literally building brains. So all of this stuff builds
the architecture of the brain and how children see their world,
function in their world, and who they become. We say
it all the time. Yeah right, So when a family says,
can you give me stuff to do while we're gone,
please give it to them.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Also, let's see chronic accentiaism. Attendance matters because regular attendance
helps children feel those academic gains. Because regular attendance develops
consistent habits that last a lifetime, according to the research.
(06:19):
You know, I remember, I just have to stop for
a second. I remember when I was young, unless I
was sick, I went to school.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
That's true. I also, unless I was sick, I went
to school. There was one day that in my family,
you were allowed to take off and it was your birthday.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Okay, that was it.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
And I still to this day work every day unless
I'm sick, and I always take my birthday off. That's
the only day. Or unless I have like an appointment
or something, I'm at work. I don't just not show
up to work.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
I used to occasionally let my children take off from
school for major things that were happening. Ye, it would
not have equal ten percent of their school year though, No,
So that's okay. Yeah. Also, just so you know, early
childhood attendance in their early childhood program serves as a
way that we can identify children who may need extra
(07:10):
support for their development. And if children aren't in their
program consistently, we can't be as sure of that as
we might be if they were with us consistently. Plus,
we can't provide them with that support consistently. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
I was going to say, if your child is in
school receiving services like speech therapy, physical therapy, those kind
of things, and you miss ten percent of the school year,
they're missing out on those very crucial supports that they need,
you know, so it's important that they're there to receive them.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
So you may be thinking, why are they talking about this.
How prevalent is this. I'll tell you how prevalent it is. Actually,
we have statistics that we found from the US Department
of Education from twenty twenty one to twenty two that
school year and from twenty twenty two to twenty twenty three.
So though most current statistic is twenty twenty three, Yeah,
(08:00):
which is not surprising. Takes time to gather all this.
So the statistics show that chronic absenteeism hovers in the
area of thirty percent thirty percent of students in the
early childhood years in preschool, So it's it's interesting to
(08:20):
me that it hovers there. It was a little higher
in the twenty twenty one to twenty two year it
was closer to thirty one percent, but in twenty twenty
two to twenty three it went down to about twenty
eight percent. It is still hovering in that thirty percent, right,
And I think it's because of a long history of
people seeing preschool as babysitting. Yes, I think it just
(08:45):
absolutely goes I should sit up, look at me on YouTube.
I think it absolutely goes back to preschool isn't important. Yes,
it's not a required thing. It's babysitting. Or we just
send our chill into school for socialization, which is very
good for you to do. But also while they're there
for socialization, they're gaining many other things, including that habit
(09:08):
of I need to show up to my obligations. Right,
So you know, we have to think about not only
the skill building, like it absolutely impacts children's reading comprehension
and literacy skills by the time they're in third grade
if they didn't regularly attend whatever program you have them in, which,
(09:29):
by the way, can be a formal preschool program like
a center based program, can be a preschool in public school,
can be failed family childcare that counts, can be homeschool
if you're using a really good system for homeschooling can't
be a haphazard homeschooling. It has to be a decent
system for it. There are these wonderful homeschool communities where
(09:54):
people educate themselves about how to do this, yes, and
they form a yeah like a pod like a pod,
like a pod, and they work together to educate the children.
It is really I was talking to somebody the other
day who homeschooled her children, and she was talking about
how it's such a myth that they're not socialized if
(10:15):
you're in a pod. She's like, if you're not in
a pod, then then that's maybe. She's like, it might
be different, she said, I don't know, because I always
make sure my children are in a pod. Yeah, or
whatever she called it. I'm calling it now your name.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
I yeah, because that's what I call it. But I
know there's other names for it. I think that there's
micro schools and other names. Yeah. Yeah, so I think
some of them just call it a community.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
And to be clear, that's not the same as family childcare.
Family childcare is when children are enrolled in an early
childhood program that takes place, usually in a home based
setting in someone's home. All of those places count as
your child's preschool program. When we're talking about this, apps
(11:00):
and teaism, people tend to miss nearly a month of school.
There are articles online about why it matters for reading,
Why it matters for social emotional growth, why it matters
for brain development, why it matters for giving children the
extra support they need before it becomes a major problem
for them, Why it manages, why it matters for teaching
(11:22):
children about how to behave in a group.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Right. I think it's it's big on like routine forming,
not just like hey, we get up, we eat breakfast,
we take a bath, we go to school. It's also
like the routine within school, and so like when they're
missing out on that and they're out for a month
of school, it's hard for them to get back into
the rhythm of school. And if you're doing this often
taking a lot of time off, it's like they can't
(11:48):
differentiate what the actual routine.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Is supposed to be.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Is it supposed to be what I do at home?
Is it supposed to be what I do on vacation.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Is it supposed to be what I do at school?
So there are several things, you know, we always try
give advice if we can. There are several things that
we can do in early education to motivate attendance. Okay,
and we're just gonna go through a few of these
from different sources. Maybe what we'll do by the time
I'm gonna download this one, by the time this podcast
(12:19):
comes out. Take a look at our website How Preschool
Teachers Do It dot Com and I go to the
resources the listener resources page, and I will have some
at least one thing there for you, if not more.
And we need to hang on. I need to press something. Okay, sorry,
technology things, I lost you. Yeah. So there are some
(12:39):
ways that we can create a positive atmosphere around attendance basically,
and some of the ways we can do that is
to engage the families and make sure they understand every
day what their children have learned. Not just here's a
cute little art thing, but here's what your child learned
by doing that cute little art thing, you know. Not
(13:00):
just here's an image of your child playing. It's here's
what your child learned while they were playing. Families don't
understand the valume unless we teach them the value. So
you need to get your whatever tool you use for
assessment and observation. Some of the popular ones where we
are in the United States anyway, are teaching strategies gold
high Scopes, Core advantage your state standards. Get the milestones
(13:25):
from the CDC if you need them, Get milestones from
wherever you can get them, whatever your system in your
country is. Get those milestones for children's development. Use that
as a basis for everything you send home to families,
because then they'll understand, Oh, if we miss a lot
of time, you're missing all this learning. Yeah right. They
don't realize that. Also, when we engage children and really
(13:46):
enriching activities, they.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Want to come to come to school, They want to come.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
And sometimes I've heard families like they've told me, you know,
I was going to keep her home yesterday and she
was upset. Yeah, And that's a wonderful thing, folks. Also,
so we can teach children that their attendance and our
program matters to us. Like they come in in the morning,
they mark their attendance in some way, they put their
(14:11):
picture on the I'm here thing, They get something like
here's a stamp on your hand, you're here today, right,
something like that that shows that them being in our space, yeah,
had great value to us.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
And for me, like what, I have a little heart,
and if you are not here today, your name goes
in the heart and we sing a song to you
about like wishing you well and that song a lot
of times. The next day they'll be like, hey, Sindy,
we saying for you yesterday. We missed you so much.
Like the kids now understand like, oh, we sang this
song because she's not here because we miss her. Right,
And so then the kids like, oh you missed.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Me, Like, yeah, we missed you.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
You were in the heart, you know, so like they
understand like when you're not there, it is like a
little bit of a whole sometimes like we miss you
like we want you to be there.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
We miss you. You're a valuable part of this classroom.
You matter to everybody. You contribute to the whole. Right. Also,
we need to reach out to families when there's been
a lot of absenteeism rather than saying things like, well,
you know, if he doesn't attend, we can just take
them off our ross. Rather than doing that and saying
things like we have people who want the spot.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
We need to go to families and explain to.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Them why this is important, and then we have to
problem solve with them, you know, if they're saying, well,
here are the reasons why he doesn't always attend, we
have another child who has X Y Z issue, and
so it's very challenging for us to get the person
here all the time. We need to problem solve that
with them and say, well, maybe we can help you out.
(15:42):
Maybe we can figure out someone who can help you out.
We you know, sometimes children are coming from families where
the adults have their own physical disabilities, yes, and it's
really hard for them to get the child there. Maybe
we can problem solve that.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Would be a transportation issue for some people. You know,
I had that last year in my class. See I
usually let don't let that go. Like if you're absent
for one day, I'm like, all right, I'll let you go.
You have a day off. If you're absent, the next day,
I email you and be like, hi, we missed you.
Is everything okay? To the parent and then they that's
usually when they'll there be more willing to share because
(16:16):
you're like, I care, I missed you? Is everything okay?
And that's when they will usually spill like, hey, it's
because we didn't have a car that day. Okay, Well
let me reach out to transportation. Maybe the bus can
come pick you up that day. Maybe we can get
a car pool going for you if you're not gonna
have a car for a long period of time, if
you know. But if we don't know, we don't we
can't help you know, we can't problem solve in brainstorm
(16:39):
if we don't know the reasons why.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
And we have to do it quick. Okay, we can't
wait until the child dirty has.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Christ One day you're out, Okay, I'll give it to you.
Two days. No, I'm emailing you that next day to
say what's going on? What's going on? Like one day, okay,
you're little under the weather, whatever, Okay, the next day.
I want to know why you know? And I'm not
prying into your life. If you're willing to share with me, you're
willing to share with me. But I want you to
know I care and I'm asking so I can help you.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
I know that this has been a big project of
head Start recently because they've had a lot of a
lot of absenteeism. And the absenteeism rates change from where
you are, like, for example, city areas have a different percentage,
a larger percentage than sometimes other areas. So I know
that Headstart has been working on systems to support families
to try and encourage the children to attend and to
(17:27):
educate families about why that matters. Also, you can partner
with if you are a private center based program, partner
with your public school, you know, reach out to them
and say, you know, is there any way we can
even share some transportation? What can we do we do
or you know, you can you develop something for us
that teaches the families that we are preparing them for
(17:48):
your school. Yes, right, what do you have that shows
readiness status?
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Great idea? Yes right, like what do we need to
do at our level to get them ready for your level?
Speaker 2 (17:57):
That's great?
Speaker 1 (17:58):
And get that information and then when you have events
at the preschool because this is important because when you
go to public school, this is what they need to
be doing and this is what they expect, and get
ready for that now. Get you're almost like, get your
head wrapped around that now, because it changes a little
bit from setting to setting.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Don't you think it's true that we you know, we
bemoan right, we sit here going, We are not babysitters.
We are educators. Child learns every waking moment of the day.
They need to be in a place that is joyful
and engaging and stimulating. And we know how how to
add to their learning, and we know how to help
them socialize. We know how to help them with those
big feelings in a way that sometimes families struggle with
(18:37):
because they're emotionally involved with their children, and we are
always saying to each other we are not just babysitting.
But then when people are chronically absent, we go, oh, well.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Yeah, I don't like, I don't care, so what take
a three month off?
Speaker 2 (18:51):
You know? You know, in another way, like I said earlier,
is we have to partner with the families and teach
them it's important. One way we teach them it's important
is when we know that is going to be a
long absence, saying to them, let me give you some
activities you can do with your child while you're there,
because we want your child's learning to continue, right, We
want this path that your child is on in building
(19:12):
these milestones to continue while you're gone. So we're gonna
give you a packet. You can't make them do it,
you know, I'll tell you can't make them do it.
They may or may not do it, but if you
give them a packet of things that they can do
that are developmentally appropriate, then at least you tried.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
You tried.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
That's the most we can do in early education. Goodness
knows is tried. I have such an itch. Do you
see me like scratching.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
On YouTube before you were looking at you like this,
and I'm like, nobody willing.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
I'm sorry, I'm over it.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
I also want to say that if your child actually
is sick, we're not saying send them to school. Oh no,
you know, we're not saying that. We're saying, you know,
if your child's sick, please keep them home because that's
the best way for them to get better. We're saying
for like long absences, taking vacations in the middle the year,
you know, because if you're child sick, they're sick. Even
if they are sick for more than ten percent of
(20:05):
the year, they're sick, right, so they should be home.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
I'll tell you what I think early childhood programs, whatever
kind of program you do, are in need to think about. Yeah,
I know, I'm sorry. Here's what I think they need
to think about. In elementary school, middle school, high school,
when a child is injured or sick and cannot attend school,
they set up away for your child to still learn. Yes,
(20:28):
they do right. Back in the day, they used to
send teachers to your home. Now it may be more digital.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Yeah I think maybe you're on zoom for the day.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Yeah, you know, but they figure out a way, figure
it out that you can make up the work you're missing.
And like I said, I remember one time one of
my siblings had a prolonged illness and the teachers were
coming to the house and I just did not like that.
But okay, it was mortified the teachers were coming to
the house. But now it's probably online. They meet with
them online, whatever it is. I think that preschool age
(21:01):
programs need to think about how do we do that
if a child has an illness or some sort of
physical challenge that keeps them home for long periods of time,
then how do we ensure that we are offering this
family and this child's support for their learning and development.
So we need systems too where we say, okay, we're
gonna do some of what we did during the pandemic
(21:23):
and we're going to get online with your children, right,
or we're going to offer you things. We'll give you
a package, you will give you a.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Packet for you could do this at home, you know,
like when your child's sick for a long period of time.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
I mean, I remember when I was in public school too.
There was a time when I don't remember what was
wrong with me, but I was going to be out
for maybe two weeks. Yeah, And I remember my parents
contacting the school to put a packet of work together
and send it home with like maybe one of the
neighbor children. Yeah, and someone brought my work to me.
We have to think about why are we not doing
(21:58):
that in preschool? If you don't, If you don't, you
need to, all right, folks, I feel done with it.
I think we've gotten the message.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
I think we've accomplished what we wanted to accomplish.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Yes, I think we've gotten the message across that the
preschool age years are still important for attendance. Folks, share
this episode. I hope you will. You know, I know
some programs have episodes of ours on their websites, or
they send a home in the app or so.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
I think this is an important one, yeah, because I
don't think people are realizing the impact further down the road,
the third grade reading the senior graduation.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
The person who doesn't think going to work matters, like.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
I, well, like I said, like, my parents established like
you're out when you're sick and on your birthday, and
I still have.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
That in me. Yeah, that's what I do, and me too.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
Otherwise I'm at work.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Me too. My children too, they go to work.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
Yeah, so it does. It is true like whatever is
established at a young age kind of becomes your mind.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
It sticks. Yeah, all right, folks, we're gonna let you
go think about that. Don't forget to go to our
website Howpreschool Teachers Do It dot Com for some backup
materials having to do with this if you need to
send them home to families, and you can check us
out on Facebook too. We have a page How Preschool
Teachers Do It podcasts. Alison just shifted her head on.
(23:19):
There is a QR code. Please come to YouTube. We
have a QR code up on the screen that you
can hold your camera up and go to what is
sort of our business card for this podcast, and it
takes you to our work and our website and all
those sorts of things. And while you're there on YouTube,
do us a favor and subscribe and like an episode
and comment. Maybe we've gotten some really good comments recently
(23:42):
from around the world, so please do all of that,
and we will catch you next time on the podcast.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Bye Peep.
Welcome to How Preschool Teachers Do It.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
I'm Cindy, I'm Alison, and we have a combined fifty
five years of experience working with children, families, and experts
in early education. We are not random influence. No, we
are not. Whether you are new or have been our
podcast peeps since twenty eighteen, we are thrilled you found us. Hey,
(00:26):
preschool peeps, we're back, maybe pep here. We are talking
about a really serious topic today, right, pretty serious and
I don't know that people always take it seriously, but
we're going to tell you why you should take it
seriously and maybe share this episode widely with educators and
especially families.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Right, but before we get into that, Alison, as she
always does, has some news to share with us about
who is listening to and or watching this podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Yes, it's very exciting because we are shouting out that
Dominican Republic today. That's a place we've never shouted out before.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
We haven't shouted out the Dominican Republic.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
No, so super excited that you're here. And we are
also shouting out Potomac, Maryland.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Where I have been. You have been there, and I
have a family who's from from there. Originally. Yeah, so
that's exciting.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
I lived in Maryland for a little while there, but
not in Potomac.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
It's very nice.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Yeah, yeah, is that I don't know. If that's close,
I don't think so.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Now all the Maryland people are gonna be like, they're
debating our state. Now, let's give them some information, solid information,
because we don't have any obviously, but we Maryland is
a place that we frequently frequent Yeah, yeah, frequently frequented.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Yeah, you can tell that it's today is a fresh
recording day, early in the morning.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Probably we are recording earlier than we usually do so
and on a day we normally.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Don't all of it.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
We're all mixed up today.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
And we are here to talk about a pretty serious topic.
We both of us, in our separate work worlds, have
we discovered. We were having conversations with people about the
absenteeism in preschool and how people sometimes just think it's
only preschool, what's the big deal. You don't have to
(02:17):
go all the time, Like, what's the big deal, You're
too young to worry about that or whatever. So I
want to first define for everyone what is chronic absenteeism.
So that you understand who we're talking about or what
situations we're talking about. And then we're going to get
into some statistics and reasons why chronic absenteeism is actually
(02:39):
an issue for the children who are attending preschool programs.
So first, let's define chronic absenteeism. Everywhere we look, We've
looked at multiple sources. Everywhere we look, chronic absenteeism has
been defined as missing at least ten percent of the
(03:00):
academic year. So you have to look at how many
days or in your acamademic year, what is ten percent
of that? People who are missing more than that number
can be considered children with chronic abscentiism.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
I would think if you're going to school, like from
September to June, that's ten months. Ten percent would be
missing a whole month.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Is that correct?
Speaker 1 (03:24):
I'm not good at math, but is that correct? It
would be basically missing a month a month thirty days
of school.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
And we know that there are families who maybe originate
from other countries and they'll take their children out for
a month or two to go and visit where they're visiting.
And I want to tell you that we fully understand
that I'm gonna give this a little disclaimer. We fully
understand why you would do that. The question is are
you keeping up with what the early Childhood program is
(03:50):
doing while you go and visit your family and your
country of origin. I remember having families who would come
to us when I was a teacher, when I was
a program director, and they would say things like, we
are going back to our home country for six weeks.
And we had some families who said, what can you
(04:12):
give me to do with my child while we're gone?
And then I remember there were people who said, oh, no,
just go enjoy your time, don't worry about it. That's
not a good response, and we're about to tell you why.
When people ask you to bring things so that they
can continue their child's education, it's very important. Even when
people don't ask you to say to them, would you
like any things from us to continue what we've been
(04:34):
working on with your child? Let them decide. We're going
to tell you the impact of children having chronic absenteeism,
and you all can take that and decide what you're
going to do with it. So there are many impacts.
It turns out that there's one statistic that shows that
starting as early as preschool in kindergarten, chronic absence can
(04:55):
leave third graders unable to read proficiently, sixth graders struggling
with coursework, and high school students off track for graduation,
and that even more importantly, it impacts social and emotional
development and makes it hard to ready gain the habit
of showing up for things. It makes it hard to
lay a foundation for later success, not only in school
(05:17):
but also in the workplace, because the understanding that you
need to show up for your obligations is that foundation
is set in the early childhood years. We talk all
the time in this profession about how important our jobs
are because we are laying a foundation that's going to
stay with that child. And we are building brains. We
(05:38):
are literally building brains. So all of this stuff builds
the architecture of the brain and how children see their world,
function in their world, and who they become. We say
it all the time. Yeah right, So when a family says,
can you give me stuff to do while we're gone,
please give it to them.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Also, let's see chronic accentiaism. Attendance matters because regular attendance
helps children feel those academic gains. Because regular attendance develops
consistent habits that last a lifetime, according to the research.
(06:19):
You know, I remember, I just have to stop for
a second. I remember when I was young, unless I
was sick, I went to school.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
That's true. I also, unless I was sick, I went
to school. There was one day that in my family,
you were allowed to take off and it was your birthday.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Okay, that was it.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
And I still to this day work every day unless
I'm sick, and I always take my birthday off. That's
the only day. Or unless I have like an appointment
or something, I'm at work. I don't just not show
up to work.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
I used to occasionally let my children take off from
school for major things that were happening. Ye, it would
not have equal ten percent of their school year though, No,
So that's okay. Yeah. Also, just so you know, early
childhood attendance in their early childhood program serves as a
way that we can identify children who may need extra
(07:10):
support for their development. And if children aren't in their
program consistently, we can't be as sure of that as
we might be if they were with us consistently. Plus,
we can't provide them with that support consistently. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
I was going to say, if your child is in
school receiving services like speech therapy, physical therapy, those kind
of things, and you miss ten percent of the school year,
they're missing out on those very crucial supports that they need,
you know, so it's important that they're there to receive them.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
So you may be thinking, why are they talking about this.
How prevalent is this. I'll tell you how prevalent it is. Actually,
we have statistics that we found from the US Department
of Education from twenty twenty one to twenty two that
school year and from twenty twenty two to twenty twenty three.
So though most current statistic is twenty twenty three, Yeah,
(08:00):
which is not surprising. Takes time to gather all this.
So the statistics show that chronic absenteeism hovers in the
area of thirty percent thirty percent of students in the
early childhood years in preschool, So it's it's interesting to
(08:20):
me that it hovers there. It was a little higher
in the twenty twenty one to twenty two year it
was closer to thirty one percent, but in twenty twenty
two to twenty three it went down to about twenty
eight percent. It is still hovering in that thirty percent, right,
And I think it's because of a long history of
people seeing preschool as babysitting. Yes, I think it just
(08:45):
absolutely goes I should sit up, look at me on YouTube.
I think it absolutely goes back to preschool isn't important. Yes,
it's not a required thing. It's babysitting. Or we just
send our chill into school for socialization, which is very
good for you to do. But also while they're there
for socialization, they're gaining many other things, including that habit
(09:08):
of I need to show up to my obligations. Right,
So you know, we have to think about not only
the skill building, like it absolutely impacts children's reading comprehension
and literacy skills by the time they're in third grade
if they didn't regularly attend whatever program you have them in, which,
(09:29):
by the way, can be a formal preschool program like
a center based program, can be a preschool in public school,
can be failed family childcare that counts, can be homeschool
if you're using a really good system for homeschooling can't
be a haphazard homeschooling. It has to be a decent
system for it. There are these wonderful homeschool communities where
(09:54):
people educate themselves about how to do this, yes, and
they form a yeah like a pod like a pod,
like a pod, and they work together to educate the children.
It is really I was talking to somebody the other
day who homeschooled her children, and she was talking about
how it's such a myth that they're not socialized if
(10:15):
you're in a pod. She's like, if you're not in
a pod, then then that's maybe. She's like, it might
be different, she said, I don't know, because I always
make sure my children are in a pod. Yeah, or
whatever she called it. I'm calling it now your name.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
I yeah, because that's what I call it. But I
know there's other names for it. I think that there's
micro schools and other names. Yeah. Yeah, so I think
some of them just call it a community.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
And to be clear, that's not the same as family childcare.
Family childcare is when children are enrolled in an early
childhood program that takes place, usually in a home based
setting in someone's home. All of those places count as
your child's preschool program. When we're talking about this, apps
(11:00):
and teaism, people tend to miss nearly a month of school.
There are articles online about why it matters for reading,
Why it matters for social emotional growth, why it matters
for brain development, why it matters for giving children the
extra support they need before it becomes a major problem
for them, Why it manages, why it matters for teaching
(11:22):
children about how to behave in a group.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Right. I think it's it's big on like routine forming,
not just like hey, we get up, we eat breakfast,
we take a bath, we go to school. It's also
like the routine within school, and so like when they're
missing out on that and they're out for a month
of school, it's hard for them to get back into
the rhythm of school. And if you're doing this often
taking a lot of time off, it's like they can't
(11:48):
differentiate what the actual routine.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Is supposed to be.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Is it supposed to be what I do at home?
Is it supposed to be what I do on vacation.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Is it supposed to be what I do at school?
So there are several things, you know, we always try
give advice if we can. There are several things that
we can do in early education to motivate attendance. Okay,
and we're just gonna go through a few of these
from different sources. Maybe what we'll do by the time
I'm gonna download this one, by the time this podcast
(12:19):
comes out. Take a look at our website How Preschool
Teachers Do It dot Com and I go to the
resources the listener resources page, and I will have some
at least one thing there for you, if not more.
And we need to hang on. I need to press something. Okay, sorry,
technology things, I lost you. Yeah. So there are some
(12:39):
ways that we can create a positive atmosphere around attendance basically,
and some of the ways we can do that is
to engage the families and make sure they understand every
day what their children have learned. Not just here's a
cute little art thing, but here's what your child learned
by doing that cute little art thing, you know. Not
(13:00):
just here's an image of your child playing. It's here's
what your child learned while they were playing. Families don't
understand the valume unless we teach them the value. So
you need to get your whatever tool you use for
assessment and observation. Some of the popular ones where we
are in the United States anyway, are teaching strategies gold
high Scopes, Core advantage your state standards. Get the milestones
(13:25):
from the CDC if you need them, Get milestones from
wherever you can get them, whatever your system in your
country is. Get those milestones for children's development. Use that
as a basis for everything you send home to families,
because then they'll understand, Oh, if we miss a lot
of time, you're missing all this learning. Yeah right. They
don't realize that. Also, when we engage children and really
(13:46):
enriching activities, they.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Want to come to come to school, They want to come.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
And sometimes I've heard families like they've told me, you know,
I was going to keep her home yesterday and she
was upset. Yeah, And that's a wonderful thing, folks. Also,
so we can teach children that their attendance and our
program matters to us. Like they come in in the morning,
they mark their attendance in some way, they put their
(14:11):
picture on the I'm here thing, They get something like
here's a stamp on your hand, you're here today, right,
something like that that shows that them being in our space, yeah,
had great value to us.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
And for me, like what, I have a little heart,
and if you are not here today, your name goes
in the heart and we sing a song to you
about like wishing you well and that song a lot
of times. The next day they'll be like, hey, Sindy,
we saying for you yesterday. We missed you so much.
Like the kids now understand like, oh, we sang this
song because she's not here because we miss her. Right,
And so then the kids like, oh you missed.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Me, Like, yeah, we missed you.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
You were in the heart, you know, so like they
understand like when you're not there, it is like a
little bit of a whole sometimes like we miss you
like we want you to be there.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
We miss you. You're a valuable part of this classroom.
You matter to everybody. You contribute to the whole. Right. Also,
we need to reach out to families when there's been
a lot of absenteeism rather than saying things like, well,
you know, if he doesn't attend, we can just take
them off our ross. Rather than doing that and saying
things like we have people who want the spot.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
We need to go to families and explain to.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Them why this is important, and then we have to
problem solve with them, you know, if they're saying, well,
here are the reasons why he doesn't always attend, we
have another child who has X Y Z issue, and
so it's very challenging for us to get the person
here all the time. We need to problem solve that
with them and say, well, maybe we can help you out.
(15:42):
Maybe we can figure out someone who can help you out.
We you know, sometimes children are coming from families where
the adults have their own physical disabilities, yes, and it's
really hard for them to get the child there. Maybe
we can problem solve that.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Would be a transportation issue for some people. You know,
I had that last year in my class. See I
usually let don't let that go. Like if you're absent
for one day, I'm like, all right, I'll let you go.
You have a day off. If you're absent, the next day,
I email you and be like, hi, we missed you.
Is everything okay? To the parent and then they that's
usually when they'll there be more willing to share because
(16:16):
you're like, I care, I missed you? Is everything okay?
And that's when they will usually spill like, hey, it's
because we didn't have a car that day. Okay, Well
let me reach out to transportation. Maybe the bus can
come pick you up that day. Maybe we can get
a car pool going for you if you're not gonna
have a car for a long period of time, if
you know. But if we don't know, we don't we
can't help you know, we can't problem solve in brainstorm
(16:39):
if we don't know the reasons why.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
And we have to do it quick. Okay, we can't
wait until the child dirty has.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Christ One day you're out, Okay, I'll give it to you.
Two days. No, I'm emailing you that next day to
say what's going on? What's going on? Like one day, okay,
you're little under the weather, whatever, Okay, the next day.
I want to know why you know? And I'm not
prying into your life. If you're willing to share with me, you're
willing to share with me. But I want you to
know I care and I'm asking so I can help you.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
I know that this has been a big project of
head Start recently because they've had a lot of a
lot of absenteeism. And the absenteeism rates change from where
you are, like, for example, city areas have a different percentage,
a larger percentage than sometimes other areas. So I know
that Headstart has been working on systems to support families
to try and encourage the children to attend and to
(17:27):
educate families about why that matters. Also, you can partner
with if you are a private center based program, partner
with your public school, you know, reach out to them
and say, you know, is there any way we can
even share some transportation? What can we do we do
or you know, you can you develop something for us
that teaches the families that we are preparing them for
(17:48):
your school. Yes, right, what do you have that shows
readiness status?
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Great idea? Yes right, like what do we need to
do at our level to get them ready for your level?
Speaker 2 (17:57):
That's great?
Speaker 1 (17:58):
And get that information and then when you have events
at the preschool because this is important because when you
go to public school, this is what they need to
be doing and this is what they expect, and get
ready for that now. Get you're almost like, get your
head wrapped around that now, because it changes a little
bit from setting to setting.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Don't you think it's true that we you know, we
bemoan right, we sit here going, We are not babysitters.
We are educators. Child learns every waking moment of the day.
They need to be in a place that is joyful
and engaging and stimulating. And we know how how to
add to their learning, and we know how to help
them socialize. We know how to help them with those
big feelings in a way that sometimes families struggle with
(18:37):
because they're emotionally involved with their children, and we are
always saying to each other we are not just babysitting.
But then when people are chronically absent, we go, oh, well.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Yeah, I don't like, I don't care, so what take
a three month off?
Speaker 2 (18:51):
You know? You know, in another way, like I said earlier,
is we have to partner with the families and teach
them it's important. One way we teach them it's important
is when we know that is going to be a
long absence, saying to them, let me give you some
activities you can do with your child while you're there,
because we want your child's learning to continue, right, We
want this path that your child is on in building
(19:12):
these milestones to continue while you're gone. So we're gonna
give you a packet. You can't make them do it,
you know, I'll tell you can't make them do it.
They may or may not do it, but if you
give them a packet of things that they can do
that are developmentally appropriate, then at least you tried.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
You tried.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
That's the most we can do in early education. Goodness
knows is tried. I have such an itch. Do you
see me like scratching.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
On YouTube before you were looking at you like this,
and I'm like, nobody willing.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
I'm sorry, I'm over it.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
I also want to say that if your child actually
is sick, we're not saying send them to school. Oh no,
you know, we're not saying that. We're saying, you know,
if your child's sick, please keep them home because that's
the best way for them to get better. We're saying
for like long absences, taking vacations in the middle the year,
you know, because if you're child sick, they're sick. Even
if they are sick for more than ten percent of
(20:05):
the year, they're sick, right, so they should be home.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
I'll tell you what I think early childhood programs, whatever
kind of program you do, are in need to think about. Yeah,
I know, I'm sorry. Here's what I think they need
to think about. In elementary school, middle school, high school,
when a child is injured or sick and cannot attend school,
they set up away for your child to still learn. Yes,
(20:28):
they do right. Back in the day, they used to
send teachers to your home. Now it may be more digital.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Yeah I think maybe you're on zoom for the day.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Yeah, you know, but they figure out a way, figure
it out that you can make up the work you're missing.
And like I said, I remember one time one of
my siblings had a prolonged illness and the teachers were
coming to the house and I just did not like that.
But okay, it was mortified the teachers were coming to
the house. But now it's probably online. They meet with
them online, whatever it is. I think that preschool age
(21:01):
programs need to think about how do we do that
if a child has an illness or some sort of
physical challenge that keeps them home for long periods of time,
then how do we ensure that we are offering this
family and this child's support for their learning and development.
So we need systems too where we say, okay, we're
gonna do some of what we did during the pandemic
(21:23):
and we're going to get online with your children, right,
or we're going to offer you things. We'll give you
a package, you will give you a.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Packet for you could do this at home, you know,
like when your child's sick for a long period of time.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
I mean, I remember when I was in public school too.
There was a time when I don't remember what was
wrong with me, but I was going to be out
for maybe two weeks. Yeah, And I remember my parents
contacting the school to put a packet of work together
and send it home with like maybe one of the
neighbor children. Yeah, and someone brought my work to me.
We have to think about why are we not doing
(21:58):
that in preschool? If you don't, If you don't, you
need to, all right, folks, I feel done with it.
I think we've gotten the message.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
I think we've accomplished what we wanted to accomplish.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Yes, I think we've gotten the message across that the
preschool age years are still important for attendance. Folks, share
this episode. I hope you will. You know, I know
some programs have episodes of ours on their websites, or
they send a home in the app or so.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
I think this is an important one, yeah, because I
don't think people are realizing the impact further down the road,
the third grade reading the senior graduation.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
The person who doesn't think going to work matters, like.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
I, well, like I said, like, my parents established like
you're out when you're sick and on your birthday, and
I still have.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
That in me. Yeah, that's what I do, and me too.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
Otherwise I'm at work.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Me too. My children too, they go to work.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
Yeah, so it does. It is true like whatever is
established at a young age kind of becomes your mind.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
It sticks. Yeah, all right, folks, we're gonna let you
go think about that. Don't forget to go to our
website Howpreschool Teachers Do It dot Com for some backup
materials having to do with this if you need to
send them home to families, and you can check us
out on Facebook too. We have a page How Preschool
Teachers Do It podcasts. Alison just shifted her head on.
(23:19):
There is a QR code. Please come to YouTube. We
have a QR code up on the screen that you
can hold your camera up and go to what is
sort of our business card for this podcast, and it
takes you to our work and our website and all
those sorts of things. And while you're there on YouTube,
do us a favor and subscribe and like an episode
and comment. Maybe we've gotten some really good comments recently
(23:42):
from around the world, so please do all of that,
and we will catch you next time on the podcast.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Bye Peep.
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