By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
As the new school year gets underway today, officials with the St. Joseph School District are hoping to see good attendance from students once again.
Director of School Improvement Kendra Lau says last year saw a nine percent rise in attendance
"That's the single biggest gain we've ever realized in one year's time," Lau says during the district's annual Back to School news conference.
And while that gain is exciting Lau says the district still has some problems
"We're 11% away from our goal of 90%," Lau says. "And when we look at our data it tells us that our parents are choosing not to send their kids to school."
Lau says this isn't the first rodeo for the district with improving attendance.
"However, it is after COVID, and it's been a gamechanger," Lau points out. "So, we've made gains incrementally before, so I suspect highly that we'll make gains again, like that 9% that's not where we're going to stop, so we have put plans into place."
Lau says the district has come up with some solutions to help, including a partnership with the Buchanan County Prosecuting Attorney's office.
"We need parents to better understand that kids need to be in school, it's not really an option," Lau explains. "And COVID, the time has run out on kids being sick without medical verification."
Lau says the district is also relaunching a successful program called Strive for Five, encouraging students to miss no more than five days of school.
"We are going to get some of that referred power from back in the day when that seemed to resonate with people," Lau says.
Lau says the district also has attendance interventionists that will make calls and home visits to families to connect and build relationships with families.