Debate:School Funding Tied to Attendance?

[Toby'sFriend]

this is from an article in today's newspaper

From mid-August through Labor Day weekend, outreach workers have scoured the streets passing out fliers, posting signs and coaxing parents and students to attend back-to-school parties--where incentives such as free backpacks and school supplies were passed out--and also make it to that all-important first day.

To underscore the importance of the effort, Chicago Board of Education President Michael Scott and schools chief Arne Duncan also took a turn one day knocking on the doors of truants.

"People tend to think that if you go out and talk to people as opposed to sending a letter, you will get a more positive response," said James Deanes, the director of School and Community Relations.

It is not simply education at stake. State financial aid is tied to attendance, and although the best three months are used to calculate that attendance, history has shown that better attendance on the first day will hold up throughout the year.

Every year, Chicago's schools leave millions of dollars in general state aid on the table because of attendance shortfalls. If the district had perfect attendance during the best three-month period--something that is, of course, not achievable--it would bring in an additional $94 million in general aid, according to the district's budget director.

First let me say I'm all for kids attending school on a regular basis, but I also feel that Illinois and many of the states are headed in the wrong direction with these initiatives. To me, when school budgets are so dramatically affected by attendance, the kids and teachers IN the school are sufferring much more than the truants and their parents.

thoughts?

 

[LisaSt]

In Ontario our schools do not recieve funding based on attendance records. Our schools are funded the same as all schools and iff there is a shortfall they do fundraising like my daughters French Immersion schol they do fundraisers to pay for playground equipment so they do not have to rely on government funding just in case they have a shortfall.

 

[tar heel]

I had never heard of school funding being based on attendance until I started reading the Dis boards.

North Carolina schools are funded based on enrollment not attendance. The enrollment on the 10th day of school is the deciding number for allocating state-paid teachers -- every student does not have to be present that day.

LisaSt -- Do you mean schools get exactly the same amount of $ regardless or enrollment or that they get so much per child?

 

[MI mom of 3]

We have "count days" One in the fall and the other in late winter. The schools plead with parents to make sure their kids are there on count day. The attendence on those days decides the funding. I think it is 75% on the first count, 25% from the second.

 

[mudhen]

I think it's a combination in Ohio. State funding is
based on enrollment, but that enrollment is based
on one week's attendance in October I think.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

I thought all schools were based in attendance. How else can they determine funding???

 

[Toby'sFriend]

I thought all schools were based in attendance. How else can they determine funding???

There is a difference between attendance and enrollment.

If a 4th grade class in your local school district enrolls 28 students for that school year -- then they have to hire the appropriate staffing, arrange for a school bus, buy textbooks and supplies etc etc etc MOST of those costs are going to be incurred even if 2 of those students have a very bad habit of only showing up to school 3 days out of every 5.

The state on the other hand will cut the school's funding because "bad" students are only attending 60% of the time. Some states will even then cut the school's funding further once those same students perform badly on the standardized tests -- which they are more likely to do because they aren't in school.

My problem with this is #1, getting kids to the school door shouldn't be a school responsibility. Most people would agree that it is a parent's job, but as usual when parents neglect, the government puts the pressure on the school district whom they have more control over.

#2 - When funding is cut, as I said before, the people MOST hurt by this are the kids who are actually in class. The truants and their parents aren't attending much and probably don't participate in extra-curriculars and "extras" anyhow. Funding just isn't an issue in their lives and they aren't motivated by the threat of losing it.