Missing School? Closing the Gaps

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Missing School? Closing the Gaps

• Too sick to go to school but not too sick to
  learn? Medically excused or truant? 
• Hurricanes? Floods? Fires? Flu season? Pandemic?
•  

Salem State U Best Practices Conference 11/2010
Ellie Goldberg, M.Ed. www.healthy-kids.info
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• 10 - 20 of children under 17 have some type of
  chronic health condition (asthma, diabetes,
  seizure disorders, cystic fibrosis, sickle cell
  anemia, liver or heart defects, etc.) Despite
  differences among conditions or their severity,
  the common challenges relate to the chronicity
  and unpredictability of a condition.
• (adapted from James Perrin, MD, Michael Weitzman,
  MD
• )
• The number of kids with chronic health issues is
  growing. USA Today Nov. 2, 2008.  Number of Kids
  on medication jumps alarmingly
• Expert Cost of absenteeism rivals health care,
  Rebecca R. Hastings, Society for Human Resource
  Management Website October 2008
  http//www.shrm.org/

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Who Else is Missing School?
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WHO ELSE IS MISSING SCHOOL?

• special interests (arts, sports)
• Jobs
• suspended, expelled, drop outs
• incarceration
• pregnancy
• babies
• lack of child care
• children as caregivers, disabled parents
• death or violence in the family
• school aversion
• distance or transportation barriers
• extreme weather, hurricanes
• traveling parents
• special education services and 'pull-out'
  therapies
• head lice
• field trips
• college visits
• bullying victims

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Challengesthe chutes
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Old BarriersGrading and Promotion Penalties
for missed time or missed "work.Indifference to
sporadic absence or intermittent attendance.
Excused Absence but poor communication,
instructional services or support. (10 day
rule?)Truancy and child neglect complaints.
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Missed School TimeLack of communication and
academic support diminishes value of school
attendance.
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Advocacy Strategy - 3Rs

• A resource, recovery and re-entry plan
• for Academic and Social Continuity
• For selective, pre-emptive and reactive
  dismissals and closures.
• Not just for kids with Issues and Illnesses.

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• "The singular purpose for determining that a
  student has a disability is to increase the
  educational opportunities available to that
  student so that he/she progresses through school.
  The responsibility of the evaluation team is to
  ensure that each student receives the most
  appropriate educational program in the Least
  Restrictive Environment..." Educating the Whole
  Student, MA Dept. of Education, September, 1992

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21st century skills

• Any organization looking to increase
  productivity, retain talented employees and gain
  competitive advantage in the 21st century cant
  overlook telecommuting as part of its strategy.

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Ranks of Virtual Workers Expected to Rise

• Oct. 26, 2010 a new online poll by Right
  Management
• -- three out of four organizations already have
  people who work remotely and, of those employers,
  nearly half expect their number to increase or
  significantly increase during the year ahead.
• "It is no surprise that the number of virtual
  employees will continue to increase given the
  widespread nature of this trend, the cost
  pressures organizations face, increased
  sophistication of technology and the growing
  number of employees who have come to expect this
  kind of flexible work arrangement," said Michael
  Haid, Senior Vice President of Global Solutions
  for Right Management.

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21st century technology and planning provides

• continuity of learning
• continuity of social relationships
• personalization
• flexibility for educators and students
• credit recovery
• remediation
• acceleration
• advanced placement
• supplemental services
• professional development
• drop out prevention

And moreespecially in under-performing schools.
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Getting Started Making Connections

• Hold face-to-face parent teacher meetings
  before/at start of year
• Connect parent-parent, teacher-parent, students
• Assess educator, parent and student readiness
• Assess school needs
• Set up communication structure
• Nothing about us without us

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Ladders

• Course syllabus
• Course calendar
• Reading lists
• Media and technology
• Student study groups
• Skill checks, quizzes and tests
• Logs, journals, reports, assignments

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• The effective teacher
• ___ Is experienced. (Has taught the course
  before.)
• ___ Is extremely well organized and predictable.
• ___ Follows a course syllabus.
• ___ Has explicit written goals and objectives.
• ___ Follows a calendar of activities and
  assignments.
• ___ Uses a basic standard text.
• ___ Posts the course syllabus, class calendar,
  study guides and assignments on a class website.

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The effective teacher

• ___ Makes all texts, supplemental materials and
  resources available at start of course.
• ___ Teaches note-taking skills Uses course
  note-takers.
• ___ Encourages writing across the curriculum.
• ___ Uses take-home exams.
• ___ Evaluates tests and assignments promptly.
• ___ Accepts assignments, papers and projects
  online.

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• The effective teacher
• ___ Uses a cooperative vs. a competitive goal
  structure. Encourages students to use each other
  as resources (study buddies, cooperative learning
  groups, study teams, share lecture and discussion
  notes, etc.).
• ___ Accepts phone links or video camera in class.
• ___ Is knowledgeable about learning technology
  and resources within the school and the
  community.

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CONTINUITY OF LEARNING Being There -- Virtually
.
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Effective programs

• have explicit, self-contained, sequential,
  comprehensive curriculum goals and assessments.
• have explicit structure, expectations and
  learning objectives.
• are student-driven, self-paced , asynchronous
  system.
• eliminate "keeping up" while "making up."
• allow students to gain mastery, proficiencies and
  pre-requisites for future courses and career.
• have credits equivalent to state curriculum
  frameworks.

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Effective programs

• avoid the frustrations, inadequacies and
  inefficiencies of tutoring.
• provide evaluation and feedback by certified
  teachers.
• manage educational documentation and
  administrative paperwork.
• provide records and reports grades and credit
  status to school.
• are easy to access anywhere, at home, library,
  school
• give students life long skills (distance
  education and virtual learning).
• can be lower cost.

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• Best Practices
• Your school improvement plan
• Protect all students' academic progress and
  emotional health
• Protect schools performance measures
• Save funds wasted on inappropriate and
  ineffective tutoring or special services.

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Continuity of Education Links

• The Continuity Of Learning For Schools (K-12)
  During Extended Student Absence or School
  Dismissal, US Dept. of Education
  http//www2.ed.gov/admins/lead/safety/emergencypla
  n/pandemic/guidance/continuity-recs.pdf
• Present, Engaged, and Accounted For, The
  Critical Importance of Addressing Chronic Absence
  in the Early Grades, Hedy N. Chang and Mariajosé
  Romero, September 2008, http//www.nccp.org/public
  ations/pub_837.html
• When Failure Is Not An Option Designing
  Competency Based Pathways. The study, by
  MetisNet and iNACOL, with support from the
  Quincy, Mass.-based Nellie Mae Education
  Foundation. http//www.inacol.org/research/docs/iN
  ACOL_FailureNotOption-web.pdf
• Blackboard.com http//www.blackboard.com/Company/E
  ducation-Continuity.aspx
• The International Association for K-12 Online
  Learning (iNACOL) http//www.inacol.org/col/
• Wayne RESA http//www.resa.net/curriculum/col/
  and http//continuityoflearning.wikispaces.com/

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Schools may be violating students civil rights
under Section 504 and the ADA if staff
create or ignore conditions that make healthy
children sick or sick children sicker, such as
poor ventilation, moldy carpets, furry animals,
renovation activity, toxic chemicals or other
sources of contamination that are barriers to
attendance or that handicap their performance or
ability to participate. school policies deny
instructional support or limit instructional
services to a certain numbers of hours per week
or to after school hours. teachers penalize a
student for missed class time due to health
problems. students do not receive the
continuity and quality of instruction necessary
to maintain academic progress..
Advocacy Note
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Ellie Goldberg healthykids_at_rcn.com