We move now to chronic absenteeism.

That's when a student misses 10% or more of school days.

While the percentage of students who are chronically absent has declined, rates remain well above prepandemic levels.

That's the case nationally, in Nevada, and in the Clark County School District, where chronic absenteeism last school year was about 6 percentage points lower than the previous school year.

Here to explain their work in that reduction are Debbie Palacios, Executive Director of Communities in Schools of Southern Nevada; Marco Mercado, a Communities in Schools of Southern Nevada Site Coordinator; and Kevin McPartlin, Associate Superintendent at the Clark County School District.

Thank you all for joining us.

Marco, I want to start with you, because you were recently featured as part of a national campaign with CIS.

Your picture, along with that of a former student, was on a big building in Dallas.

I want to know about that student.

What was his story, what was keeping him from getting to school, and how did you resolve that?

(Marco Mercado) Well, thank you for having me.

So when it came to my former student, some of the things that were keeping him from coming to school was just more of like, you know, kind of like issues at home, transportation.

Sometimes it would result in like, you know, having to go to work instead of, like, going to school.

And we kind of started-- you know, there was a, there was a solution for every issue once you kind of broke it down and, you know, just the importance of, you know, getting your education, even though there might be other things going on, and kind of focusing on yourself and your future.

-You mentioned transportation.

Some of the other issues that lead to chronic absenteeism, what are they, Debbie, that you have found?

(Debbie Palacios) Yes.

You know, it's really important to ask students and families what they are going through.

And so a lot of it sometimes is not just a student issue, but it is a family issue.

So we know that families struggle with transportation.

It could be housing insecurity, food insecurity, childcare.

So we have older students perhaps taking care of younger siblings.

So really, just really tough issues that are affecting not just our students, but also their families.

-How does the school district go about addressing those complicated issues?

(Kevin McPartlin) Certainly.

And the great thing is, is there is an awareness of chronic absenteeism is not just a school district issue.

It is a community issue.

One thing we've done in the last 18 months is really focused on getting out to the families.

And so we have 30 attendance enforcement officers, and we focus on home visits.

We've narrowed the scope of their practice to get to home visits.

Last year, they did 38,000 home visits to really get into the homes, to identify what that need is and then connect them to our partners.

So, you know, we have identified, there's five main root causes that we've identified, even though it's very individualized.

It involves mental health, it involves academic gaps, childcare needs, and basic needs.

So that's where we try to fill, like-- is it clothing?

Is it housing?

Is it, you know, where there's some bullying situation going on at school?

And we work with the individual schools and the families to resolve that.

-Debbie, are there certain communities among students that are more impacted than others by chronic absenteeism?

-Absolutely.

We see it, of course, in our high-needs schools.

Communities in Schools is currently in over 80 schools here in the Clark County School District, and they are our Title I schools or schools where we know that students and their families are living at or below the poverty line.

And then that also affects our students of color.

So primarily, those are communities of color, and what we really want to do is go into those communities and, first and foremost, identify the issues, identify those barriers, but then also look at what are some of the really great assets of those communities and leverage those in order to be able to build those relationships and seek those needs.

And we do that through our partnerships with our schools, with our educators.

We know that these issues are way too big for one entity to be able to tackle on their own, so that collaboration piece is critical.

-Kevin, you and I had spoken off camera about basic needs, clothing, for example.

A child may have only one pair of clothes to wear and does not want to go back to school wearing the same thing every day.

These kind of issues existed prior to the pandemic, though, right?

So why is this such a big issue now?

-Yeah, no, I think, and again, it absolutely existed before.

I think that COVID and the lockdown and students being isolated and not being able to go to their safe place at school, it really just put a magnifying glass on some of the preexisting issues.

And students, you know, not being able to go to their safe place a lot of times at school.

And then also just exasperated where parents kind of tend to deal with their own needs to provide for the family, and the students were kind of left behind a bit.

So it's certainly they exist, but it exponentially expanded the issues.

-But if that was their safe space, then wouldn't they want to go back to it now that school is back open?

-Might not always have the option when you're helping provide for your family or assisting them in things that maybe they used to do and aren't able to because, you know.

I knew a lot of students that had to not only get themselves ready, but get their younger siblings ready and made sure that they got to school on time and made sure that they were there to pick them up.

You know, certain things like that.

Or, you know, sometimes, Oh, you know, I gotta, I gotta help provide for this family, so I'm gonna choose to work instead of going to school.

It's not necessarily what I want to do, but it's what I need to do.

-How difficult is it getting parents on board on this topic?

-I think with the Clark County School District, we have our "Attendance Matters" campaign, and it really talks about just explaining to parents some of the procedures that schools have and some of the reasons why it's important to go to school and family habits that can support it, but then, most importantly, the resources that are available.

Because, again, we do have a lot of instances where parents have to get up to go to work early.

Students now are taking care of themselves to get there.

Sometimes it is if there is some kind of childcare or some kind of place that can go and transport the students there, and we can provide that.

So I think parents, a lot of times it's not, it's not just that they aren't aware students need to be in school.

There's so many obstacles in the way that we need to help fill the gaps to support those families.

-I would also like to say, you know, I think I'm not a parent myself, but what I see with just, you know, I've worked with so many students along these, you know, eight years.

And something I want to say is, I do think, you know, as a parent, I could understand a parent having, you know, pride and not wanting to ask for help, but, you know, it's okay.

And we all need help every now and then, and there's no need to be ashamed of that and knowing that you're doing it for your child.

And I mean, if the resources are out there, like, you know, take that advantage.

-If I could just jump on that.

You're so right, Marco.

And that's where, with our attendance enforcement officers, when they go to the homes, it's not a, Parents, you're screwing up.

Get your kid to school.

It's really, There's something going on here.

We want to help.

Like, let's-- and that's where parents are really-- you know, it's not this punitive thing.

And parents are a little bit more accepting of, Okay, you're not, you're not here to yell at me or to get me in trouble, you want to help.

And that's really the tactic we've been taking.

-I was going to say something.

I remember telling students, you know, it matters the approach that you do.

Speak to students and an approach that they're probably used to is like, you know, You're gonna get in trouble.

You're, you know-- This is, you know-- Why are you missing so much school?

And I feel like my approach was always like, hey, what's going on?

What can I help you with?

What are you willing to share so I can hopefully assist you?

And I think that just has to do with the collaboration piece and building those rapport with those students.

-Last thing, Debbie.

I'll put you on the spot.

You said "creative approaches."

Can you name one that's kind of outside of the box?

-Yeah, absolutely.

So we support over 70,000 students here in our community, and we do that a lot through our resource rooms.

And these resource rooms are stocked with whatever students might need.

We've talked about clothing.

It could be hygiene supplies.

It could be shoes.

But one of our resource rooms, for instance, stocks alarm clocks, because we have students who are getting themselves to school.

And so when we collect school supplies, we actually put alarm clocks on that list, which folks might not necessarily equate to a school supply.

But it is something a student needs that's going to help them be successful.

So they can have an alarm clock that will wake them up so that they are able, because Mom and Dad maybe are working that shift and can't get them to school, and they can get themselves to school.

So again, really getting to know those students, those families, building that trust, and making sure that we understand how we can help.

-Thank you all for joining Nevada Week.

And thank you for watching.