Wednesday, April 22, 2020

Absent Students

Recently I was contacted by someone wanting to know the best way to handle students who are absent from their remote learning commitments. They either don’t show up to the meetings and/or aren’t turning in the work.

I think there are several steps to take in order to try to engage the student.

Depending on the age of the student, if the student is old enough, contact the student either by email, text, or phone and try to find out the reason the student is not doing what is expected.

If you are unable to reach the student or the student is too young to have a phone or email, contact the parents. There may be a reasonable explanation (no internet, power, computer, etc.) and you may be able to help solve a problem.

If you are unable to reach the parent or solve the problem, contact your guidance counselor and see if you can get any help from that direction.

If you don’t have a guidance counselor, it is time to contact your administrator. Explain the problem and give all the steps you have taken to try to solve the problem on your own.

During all of this, make sure you document your meetings and the student’s absences on those dates.

Also document all the communication you have had with the student, parent, and colleagues.

Hopefully one of these steps will take care of the problem. I think we need to keep expectations high so that when we transition back into the classroom, our students don’t fall into bad habits.

What suggestions would you give for remote learning absentees? Please share.

Photo by Bernard Hermant on Unsplash

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