Attendance+Counselor+Interview

**Interview with Attendance Counselor at Arvada High School**

**What I gained from my interview with the Attendance Counselor:** The main thing that I gained from this interview was how much of an issue attendance was at AHS. This counselor was not able to dedicate his whole job to attendance and had many other roles to fulfill at AHS. Unfortunately, it did not seem that attendance was a huge concern for the school. This is hard to believe when about 1/3 of the student population had issues with attendance. The attendance counselor seemed very willing to adapt any new program to the school as long as there were clear consequences and the entire staff was on the same page. Next school year this counselor is retiring and no one will be replacing his role. This makes me very concerned that attendance will become even more of an issue in the following years.
 * **Question** || **Teacher Response** ||
 * What is Arvada High School policy for absences? || For daily absences there is an automatic caller for all students (excused/unexcused). After four absences there is a letter sent home to parents (excused/unexcused absences). After seven days of absences another letter is sent home. After three letters are sent home, then a mandatory meeting is called with parents and student. A plan is made to help students get to school, usually with a three week review period. If student continues to have absence issues then the issue can be sent to the courts. ||
 * What intervention strategies that are in place at AHS for attendance? || We always try to give students one more chance before getting the courts involved. For about half of the students the letters and phone calls home are enough to get his/her attendance back in track ||
 * What challenges are there at AHS with attendance? || It is hard to tell when students are in class or on an off period. There are open periods at Arvada High School so unless you look up a students schedule it is hard to determine if a student is ditching or on an off period. Last school year I completed over 300 truancy reports, that is about 1/3 of the student population. ||
 * What challenges are there with tardies? || The students receive mixed messages about tardies. Some teachers are very stick about giving tardies and others are much more lax. There needs to be more consistency with the tardy policy as a school. ||
 * What strategies do you believe would improve the attendance at AHS? || Honestly, change the drop out date back to 16. This would give students a wake up call earlier and maybe they would realize the value of education earlier. The other thing would be to give parents more support and understanding. ||
 * What do you feel is the cause of chronic poor attendance? || <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Students lack engagement and the desire to be in school. Students don't understand the benefit of school. Often students want to maintain the image of being "bad/hard" and does not go hand-in-hand with education. ||