If you don’t show up at school, you can’t learn. And if you don’t show up at high school, you’re likely to have just as much trouble showing up at work or at college.
During the 2009-10 and 2010-11 school years, the chronic absenteeism rate of Providence public high school students hovered at an astounding 55 percent. The advent of Mayor Angel Taveras’ administration, however, saw a significant decline in chronic absenteeism, approaching 45% by the 2013-14 school year. But with the arrival of Mayor Jorge Elorza’s team, the favorable downward trend in high school absenteeism appears to have stagnated. So far, nearly half of the gains achieved during the Taveras years have evaporated.
The graph shows the proportion of Providence public high school students in each school year who were absent at least 10 percent of the time. Sources: Providence Public School Department, Office of Research, Planning & Accountability. Data Brief. Chronic Absenteeism SY14-15, (Sep. 2015) and Data Brief. Chronic Absenteeism SY15-16 (Oct. 2016).
What Taveras Did Right
Propelled by a November 2011 workshop run by Hedy Chang, national director of Attendance Works, the Providence Public Schools began to set up school-based attendance teams. In the fall of 2012, several high schools began partnering with Get Schooled, a national nonprofit organization that focuses on teen peer influence and the media to encourage attendance. By March 2014, nine high schools were participating. Mount Pleasant High School’s chronic absenteeism rate plummeted from 69.5% in the 2010-11 school year to 42.4% in the 2013-14 school year.
When Elorza’s Team Took Over
What happened after Elorza’s team took over in January 2015? By June 2015, according to a report in the Providence Journal, Superintendent Susan Lusi had abruptly resigned, “blaming a system of governance that made it difficult for her to get things done in a timely manner.” During Lusi’s 4-year tenure, the Providence Journal separately reported, graduation rates had risen from 65 to 71 percent and dropout rates had declined from 21 to 14 percent. After Lusi left, the current Superintendant Christopher N. Maher was kept in limbo for nine months before he was finally given the go-ahead to assume Lusi’s post.
In January 2016, Keith Oliveira, the widely respected principal of one of the City’s most innovative charter high schools, likewise abruptly resigned as President of the Providence School Board, claiming that Mayor Elorza had “interfered with the school’s budget process.” Elorza replaced Oliveira with attorney-lobbyist Nicholas Hemond, an individual who, to put it delicately, did not have the impressive educational credentials of Oliveira. Meanwhile, chronic absenteeism at Mount Pleasant High has crept back up to 50.9%.
Maher has pledged to work with the Providence Children Youth Cabinet to attack the problem, and there are some recent signs of a possible improvement in attendance in the elementary grades. But these good intentions may not be sufficient to overcome an over-controlling mayor with a proven track record of being unable to work with a successful superintendent and a top-notch school board president.
Promises about Dreams
“Every dollar invested in kids is a dollar well spent,” declared Mayor Jorge Elorza in his February 1 State of the City address (excerpted above from WPRI). “And that’s why I recently announced that for the first time in six years, we will be increasing the City’s contributions to the schools and sending a message that we believe in our kids, and we’ll make sure that they have all the resources they need to achieve their dreams.”
Elorza’s two-year track record speaks more loudly than his reflexively-polite-applause-generating promises about dreams. If Providence is to attract new business enterprises, it will need a solid, expanding base of well-educated young people who are prepared to show up every day and work in those businesses.
The school bell is ringing.
providencerules.wordpress.com 
It is interesting that the tone of the article lays the blame on the children and not on:
1) Long and unpredictable bus schedules.
2) Very long walks.
3) Exceedingly punitive punishments.
4) Needs of family, care (elder, child)
5) Need for additional income.
6) Literally crumbling schools with indoor air-quality issues causing illness, and exacerbating chronic illness like asthma.
All of this can be barriers to attendance. If we are going to focus on the needs of imaginary businesses, then we should also focus on the institutional and intersectional responsibilities of city governments. If there is to be a serious addressing of the issue the focus would go to the fact the poverty is the indicator. Unless that is faced honestly and openly any improvement would be un sustainable.
For me when I was attending Hope my father required long term personal care for his parkinson’s disease and dementia, and had to work 40 hours a week. I knew several kids who were doing similar things. I was a chronic absentee. To try to re-enter school was difficult and came with punishment, so instead drop out.
A robust and equitable state school funding formula de-linked from property taxes, a commitment integration, a approaching schools as a part of a community that is the resource for growth for the students sake, not as an alt. HR department for non-existent business.
-Mike Araujo
Executive Director
RI Jobs with Justice.
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I did not see this article blaming the students. I understand your past as I had similar trajectory; however, for different reasons and in my case of my own doing. This article is more about highlighting the direction under two different administration with the idea that perhaps one of them was doing something different and that it was working. I do not claim to have the answer; however, I disagree with you that it is blaming the students.
Hope all is well Mike.
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I didn’t miss a day in high school. Literally not one day. In contrast, I rarely showed up to class for college. If I could pass the test, why show up? I had to work and support my family. Flip it again for work, where I almost never miss a day. If people are going to pay me to show up-whether it be through learning or money-then I’ll show up. If not, why bother?
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