Editors’ Note: This story was originally published in the Rockbridge Report on Sept. 26.
Since the pandemic, students have missed more school. Rockbridge County is no exception.
About 30% of Rockbridge County High School students missed more than 10% of the 2023-24 school year, according to school officials. That’s almost double the state average.
In response, Rockbridge County Public Schools hired a high school attendance officer and adopted a new attendance regulation policy.
Students may be denied credit or promotion to the next grade if they miss more than 17 days of the school year, according to the new policy. Administrators will notify the parents after 16 absences.
“We wanted to put a formal regulation in place with clear expectations, so everybody understood what we were trying to accomplish,” said Tim Martino, the county’s assistant superintendent of instruction and administration.
The county is hoping to decrease chronic absenteeism by 5% each year, Martino said. Last year, four of the six county schools met this goal.
Natural Bridge cut its chronic absenteeism rates in half. Fairfield Elementary’s attendance rebounded to pre-pandemic levels. Incentives, such as ice cream parties, raffles and extra recesses, have helped encourage students, school officials said.
“Particularly at the elementary level, we don’t have a lot of control over whether or not students come to school in the morning,” said Michael Loret, Fairfield Elementary Principal. “However, we do have control over how inviting our school is and making it a place that children want to come to every morning.”
School officials said students primarily miss school due to illness. In some cases, parents say it’s just easier to let their children stay home.
“If they’re still passing, they’re not caring as much because we got used to them not being in the classroom,” said Nicki Ulrich, a high school parent. They figure “if you want to stay home today, that’s fine. Log on to your computer, get your assignments.”
Students also miss classes when they have medical appointments. Some doctor’s offices in the county shut down during the pandemic, forcing parents to take their children out of town for appointments, Ulrich said.
The county recently added school-based health center resources at Maury River Middle School and the high school.
“We’re not trying to take over your primary care provider,” said Lacy Ramsey, a community health worker. “It’s kind of like an urgent care option.”
The health center offers medical, dental and behavioral health appointments, Ramsey said.
Students are able to leave class, get the care they need and return to their room within 30 minutes, Ramsey said.
Parents say schools haven’t communicated the new attendance policy.
“I didn’t know that they could lose credit,” Ulrich said. “I think they’re going to get a lot of flak from it, and I think that’s going to be really hard to enforce. I think the school isn’t very consistent in sharing information either.”
Eva Sheller has children at both Maury River Middle School and Harrington Waddell Elementary School. She said she hadn’t heard much about the absence issue before.
“I did get a letter from Lexington City Schools saying that they were trying to prevent it, but I didn’t hear anything from the middle school,” Sheller said.
