Amid high student absenteeism, PGCPS aims to find a solution that sticks

When Principal Warren Tweety started at Andrew Jackson Academy in District Heights, he says, too many children were missing from school.

“When I arrived at Andrew Jackson Academy in 2022, our chronic absenteeism rate was 74%,” Tweety said.

It’s not just Andrew Jackson Academy. Chronic absenteeism among students is a district-wide problem, and since the pandemic, chronic absenteeism has also been a nation-wide problem.

In the Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS), the number of chronically absent students have dropped from 30% to 27% over the past year.

School leaders needed to figure out how to get kids back in class, but first they needed to understand why so many seats were empty.

And students told them.

“We’re talking about students dealing with the weight of anxiety, stress and mental health struggles. And honestly, we’re talking about students who sometimes feel disconnected” Erioluwa Ajakaye, a student member of the school board, said.

Students, parents and school leaders were part of the announcement of a community-driven initiative to reduce chronic absenteeism called the Attendance Ambassador Program.

“As attendance ambassadors, we have the opportunity to encourage and inspire each and every scholar in Prince George’s County to be present, to be engaged in their education,” one ambassador said.

Participants sign a pledge committing to the shared responsibility of showing up, encouraging positive habits and helping remove barriers to attendance, which can be as simple as a ride to school.

“It’s, again, the community working alongside the school district to reach our students and our families to get students back in school every day,” Tisa Holley, PGCPS director of student services, said.

They’re emphasizing absences add up. If your student misses just two days of school every month, that can add up to 10% of the school year, and that’s how kids fall behind,” she said.

At Andrew Jackson Academy, school leaders have been working on the problem for the past several years.

Tweety says they’ve brought the rate of chronically absent students down from 74% to 21%.

“We really dig deep into individual students so we can find out what’s going on, we talk to parents,” he said.

Students participating in the program told News4 that it’s working.

“This program is really engaging for the kids and fun to make all the kids come to school,” eighth grader Carli Hollard said.