There are growing calls to address chronic absenteeism in Hawaii schools in the state’s education reform agenda, with proponents pointing out that better instruction and longer school days won’t do much for kids who don’t attend regularly.

“Unless we deal with the absenteeism problem, the students that are not achieving, they’re going to continue not achieving,” Board of Education Vice Chairman Brian De Lima told state Department of Education officials at a recent meeting.

A Senate Concurrent Resolution, which passed the Senate Education Committee on Friday, similarly urges more work on attendance. The resolution notes that more than 15 percent of Hawaii students miss 15 or more days of school a year.

“Attendance is a significant problem,” said Sen. Jill Tokuda, Senate Education Committee chairwoman. “When you take a look at what’s required to give students a chance to achieve, first things first, they need to be there. They need to show up.”

The concerns come as the DOE is reporting new absenteeism figures, which show:

>> About 12,000 students accrued 15 or more absences from Aug. 1 to Jan. 31, a five-month period during which there were 112 school days. That means those students missed

13 percent or more of the first half of the school year. (Studies show when a student misses 10 percent or more of a school year, their achievement suffers.)

>> Ten percent or more of the student population at 46 schools was chronically absent this school year, missing 15 days or more during the first half.

>> Some schools had higher rates of chronically absent students: 26 percent of students at Waianae High, 20 percent of students at Pahoa High and Intermediate, and 19 percent of students at Waianae Intermediate were absent 15 days or more during the period.

The figures, which were part of a request for data from the Star-Advertiser, are a concern, said Ronn Nozoe, DOE deputy superintendent, adding that absenteeism cannot be addressed “in isolation” by schools.

“We can have 100 percent attendance, but if we don’t have good instruction, it’s not going to move the needle,” Nozoe said.

He also pointed out that the percentage of students who are chronically absent represent a relatively small percentage of all those enrolled. So far this year, he noted, more than 47,700 public school students have had one or no absences.

While absenteeism isn’t often mentioned as among the key issues the DOE is addressing as it looks to boost student achievement, state and school administrators say there are efforts under way to improve parent involvement and student engagement and to partner with social service organizations to offer struggling families more help.

Those efforts will help remove the barriers students have to coming to school regularly, said Randall Miura, acting Nanakuli-Waianae complex area superintendent.

“Attendance is like a habit you develop,” he said. “Part of the outreach from the schools is trying to create those partnerships with the families. At the same time … we need to make school meaningful, purposeful and engaging for kids.”

He added that schools are being proactive in efforts to get students to class. Counselors conduct home visits to sit down with parents and talk about the causes behind their child’s absenteeism. Teachers call home to check on students. And sometimes, he said, schools or teachers even buy kids alarm clocks to get them up on time.

The calls to put more emphasis on absenteeism, from state legislators and others, come amid a massive education reform effort aimed at raising student achievement, particularly in schools that have for years performed poorly.

Tokuda said schools “need to be looking at the attendance issue seriously” if improvements to achievement are to be successful. Under the resolution before the Legislature, school community councils would be charged with reviewing their school’s attendance policy and developing a plan on how to improve absenteeism. The results would be reported to lawmakers by school community council members during the 2013 legislative session.

De Lima, of the BOE, said he would also like to see a task force made up of representatives from the Department of Education, social service sector and courts, to take up absenteeism and think about ways to work together to help students. “I think we all need to pool our resources and put as much attention to this problem as we do drug court,” he said. “Everybody is committed to helping students attend school regularly.”

He said there are already laws that can act as “hammers” to drive home the consequences of not attending on a regular basis. (School attendance is compulsory after kindergarten in Hawaii.) The DOE can pursue educational neglect or truancy petitions in chronic absenteeism cases, both of which are done relatively rarely.

In the 2010-11 school year, the state Attorney General’s Office filed 85 truancy petitions statewide with Family Court and four educational neglect petitions. The year before, there were 14 educational neglect petitions filed and 141 truancy petitions.

Nozoe said the petitions are a “last resort” for schools, and that principals and counselors prefer more cooperative methods of getting students to attend regularly.

Hedy Chang, director of Attendance Works, a national initiative aimed at raising awareness about chronic absenteeism and supporting efforts to address it, said there are generally three reasons kids don’t come to school regularly: They don’t see school as a top priority; they’re avoiding school because of bullying or other issues; or they can’t get to school because of real barriers, usually economic, such as no transportation, unsafe neighborhoods or a lack of medical or dental care.

Chang added that chronic absenteeism is a “very high risk,” which can lead to students failing a grade, falling behind and, eventually, dropping out. “If you’ve missed a month of school, I don’t care for what reason, it’s a problem,” Chang said.

At Waianae High, 453 of the school’s 1,715 students were absent 15 or more days during the first half of the school year, giving the school the state’s highest percentage (26.4 percent) of chronically absent students.  

Principal Nelson Shigeta said poverty appears to be the biggest cause behind chronic absenteeism. He added, in an email, that

“Waianae High School and the Waianae complex feel absenteeism is a problem that is impacting our complex goal to increase the high school graduation rate and post-high school opportunities for our students.”

At Waianae Elementary, 83 of the school’s 595 students, or 14 percent, have missed 15 or more days from Aug. 1 to Jan. 31, according to the new DOE statistics.

Principal John Wataoka said the school is always trying to address chronic absenteeism by building trust with parents and driving home how important attendance is. During his seven years at the school, “it’s something that we’ve constantly been working on,” he said. “We haven’t really found that silver bullet to fix it.”

Wataoka added that sometimes chronic absenteeism is due to a family in crisis, struggling with homelessness, economic troubles or other issues. If basic needs such as food and shelter aren’t met, he said, “it’s hard for families to make school a priority.”

Meanwhile, the DOE absenteeism numbers did have bright spots. Several schools that serve low-income communities, including Kalihi Kai Elementary, had low percentages of students who were chronically absent.

Kalihi Kai Elementary Vice Principal Laurie Luczak said working to address absenteeism has been a “very deliberate” policy at the school.

“Our teachers deserve a lot of credit in embedding the message that you need to come to school,” she said, adding that counselors also do home visits to address poor attendance.

Some 17 students, or 2.7 percent of the school’s enrollment, accrued 15 or more absences from Aug. 1 to Jan. 31. That’s nearly on par with Kaimuki Middle and Hawaii Kai’s Hahaione Elementary, where 2.3 percent of students had 15 or more absences.