One might call it a teacher telethon.
Twice this semester, North Stafford High School teachers used their free time or scheduled substitutes to call parents about their child’s excessive absences.
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WATCH HERESince the pandemic, chronic absenteeism has remained an ongoing problem at many schools nationwide.
During the 2023-2024 academic year, North Stafford’s chronic absenteeism rate dropped from 30% to 19% with the help of automated calls and emails. However, the rate increased to 24% earlier this semester.
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SIGN UP To combat that spike, the administrative team huddled up, and a vice principal suggested what she called the “Reclaiming Souls Telethon.”
Northern Virginia
Dayarelis Quinones, an English teacher at North Stafford, was one of the phone bank volunteers.
“Some of the information they were sharing, we were like, ‘We can help with that’ and they were shocked,” Quinones said.
The teacher’s calls usually asked parents to make a commitment.
“It was like, please be our partner in helping your child, so it was always seeking for them to help us,” Quinones said.
More than 100 families got home visits. Ruth Hernandez said both of her high schoolers were missing class because they suffer from medical issues. When she learned they were in danger of losing course credits, the school administrator who visited suggested they make up their work in after school sessions.
“I think the school does care about the students and I really like that,” Hernandez said.
With the help of an interpreter, Karen Barahona told News4 that the effort has helped turn around her daughter’s attendance challenges.
“Her attendance is not an issue anymore, and I know she is in school from Monday to Friday,” Barahona said.
Administrators and teachers who participated in the initiative believe it is successful and plan to do it every semester next year.
