Manteca Unified educators traded a health pandemic for an attendance epidemic.

They are now — based on data from the 2021-2022 school year — struggling with record chronic absenteeism.

Almost 9,000 students out of 25,000 have fallen into a pattern of chronic absenteeism.

It means they are missing at least 18 days of school  each year.

That is based on the California Department State of Education definition of being absent 10 percent or more during a school year. Manteca Unified’s annual school calendar for instruction covers 180 days.

Missing that much instruction time creates a ripple effect that ultimately can weaken how successful individual students are at learning.

That’s because it just doesn’t impact one school year of instruction.

“Students lose out on building blocks essential to lay the foundation for future instruction,” noted Victoria Brunn who serves as the district’s chief business and information officer.

Reasons for chronic absenteeism that pandemic protocols imposed by the state may have exacerbated include:

*Anxiety about returning to school.

*Lack of routine after months of remote learning.

*Social-emotional struggles.

*Academic frustrations.

*Lack of transportation to school.

*Housing instability due to the end of eviction moratoriums and the persistently high cost of living in California

In the 2017-2018 school year, chronic absenteeism in the MUSD was 10.1 percent

It went up to 11.5 percent the following school year.

When the pandemic hit, data collection aggregated on the California School Dashboard that mirrors educational trends statewide, was suspended by the Department of Education.

Once it resumed, chronic absenteeism had soared to 35.8 percent in the 2021-2022 school year.

That somewhat mirrors the statewide trend.

But instead of Manteca Unified being below the state average in chronic absentee, it is now substantially above the 30 percent average for the rest of California.

“We will need the community’s help at stressing how important  an education is,” said Clark Burke, district superintendent.

That means enlisting parents as well as others to get the message out that students need to be in school.

The district has significantly stepped up efforts to remove roadblocks that interfere with maximizing a student’s success in in school. That means finding out — and working to address — why students aren’t in school on a one-on-one basis

The tripling of chronic absenteeism in Manteca Unified schools means the biggest challenge from the COVID-19 pandemic where protocols put in place wasn’t a large number of students falling behind due to issues with distance learning.

As daunting as the problems were that  the pandemic was creating for learning loss, the aftermath that has led to students now chronically absent is a bigger threat to their success in school.

*Chronic absenteeism undermines the progressive nature of learning. If students in primary grades miss large swaths of instruction they are shorted on building basic skills in math, language arts and such that are required to be successful in the next grade.

*In middle grades, chronic absenteeism undermines efforts to lay the foundation for high school courses aimed at sharpening life skills and preparing students for college.

*The problem is amplified at the high school due to the decision by the district years ago to switch to block scheduling — a process that allows more intense and effective learning — in a shorter period of time that increases knowledge retention. It also allows more flexibility as well as opportunities for students to maximize what they can learn at high school.

Block scheduling reduced the number of classes a high school student takes in a given day but significantly increase the time in each class.

That allows for 18 weeks of instruction in a typical semester to be compressed into 9 weeks.

Missing a minimum 18 days of high school with block scheduling means students aren’t losing just 10 percent of what they need to learn but at least 20 percent.

Brunn points out at the high school level that involves classes that help develop life skills — such as financial responsibility — as well as classes designed to sharpen and apply critical thinking in a robust and effective manner to prep for educational opportunities beyond high school or success in the workforce.

There are now Coordination of Services Teams (COST) at every school site in the district to address chronic absenteeism

The teams:

*Receive, review, and implement a plan of action for each student referred for chronic absenteeism on an individual basis.

*Referral takes place based on teacher input and other options being exhausted.

*They link students with school site and community resources as needed to address the root of their chronic absenteeism.

*Identify one team member to case manage an individual student to assist with their accessing resources and support them in a bid to build positive progress.

*Develop and coordinate school-wide programs reflective of student needs running the gamut from reengagement programs to family connectiveness.

*Hold weekly meetings to discuss case updates and review new cases as a team.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com.