Published: Saturday, November 20, 2010, 5:00 PM Updated: Saturday, November 20, 2010, 10:22 PM
Thomas Ott, The Plain Dealer
Tracy Hill, left, director of family and community engagement for the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, and Blessing Nwaozuzu, right, executive director of student services, talk to a guardian of a teenager who frequently has been absent.
CLEVELAND, Ohio — If Cleveland students are not coming to school, then the school will come to them.
Teams fanned out Saturday morning around district buildings with the lowest attendance. Included were five high schools — East Tech, Collinwood, Lincoln-West, John Adams and John Marshall — and five elementary buildings — Wilbur Wright, Woodland Hills, Anton Grdina, Carl and Louis Stokes and Marion-Sterling.
In twos and threes, principals and staff volunteers went to the homes of at least 300 students listed as having 10 to 20 unexcused absences already this year. The intent was not to threaten or berate but to leave an impression, make sure parents and guardians knew how many days students had been absent and offer help with problems that sometimes get in the way of getting to school.
The visits, to be repeated quarterly, are part of the district’s new Target 11 initiative, aimed at preventing students from missing more than 11 days in a year, with or without an excuse.
Students out more than 11 days are near the point where they won’t achieve 93 percent attendance, a state report card benchmark that the district, as a whole, has had difficulty reaching. According to the state, Cleveland had 91.7 percent attendance for the last school year.
For the students’ whose homes were singled out Saturday, the goal now is just to get them in school as many days as possible.
Blessing Nwaozuzu, district director of student information, and Tracy Hill, director of family and community “engagement,” drove northeast Cleveland, seeking the parents and guardians of Collinwood students.
Each of the students was recorded as missing 17 to 20 days without an excuse. That’s up to a third of the time elapsed since classes began Aug. 26.
“It’s alarming to see numbers like this,” said Nwaozuzu, pronounced nwa-zu-zu. “We want to find out how we can support a parent or guardian in improving their child’s attendance.”
No one answered the door at six of the 10 houses, though in at least two cases someone could be seen or heard inside. At each home, Nwaozuzu and Hill left a plastic bag packed with a small alarm clock — eliminating at least one excuse for not making it to school — and a list of services families can turn to if they encounter problems that prevent attendance.
LaTonya Harris, helping with food distribution at a church across the street from her house, was cordial but denied her son had missed all of the 19 days listed in school records. She suspects he is reporting after attendance is taken and, thus, getting marked absent.
“I tell him every day to be on time,” said Harris, promising to redouble her efforts. “It’s important.”
Jarome Jones said his stepson, whose records show 17 unexcused absences, was gone for more than a week while he stayed with his biological father at his home in the South. Jones blamed the remaining absences on “household emergencies,” including a time when the house lost power.
Jones accepted the bag and said he would review the information it contained. He wasn’t bothered by the women’s visit.
“I would definitely say it’s a positive way to find out what’s going on with the kids,” he said.
The school district no longer has truant officers but does not ignore unexcused absences. The homes visited Saturday had received phone calls and at least one letter. Nwaozuzu said the district will continue to monitor the students’ attendance and follow up with more calls, if necessary.
Some district students have more than 20 unexcused absences and face more aggressive intervention, Nwaozuzu said. The district views prosecution as a last resort but last year sent hundreds of cases to the Cuyahoga County Department of Children and Family Services and Juvenile Court.
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