Better not call them truant officers!
“We are not truant officers. We are partners with parents.”
That’s what these two educators from Washington, D.C. call themselves as they knock on doors around town to check up on their absentee students.
You could also call them wellness coordinators because that’s exactly what they do.
Unlike truant officers, who can issue fines and fees for no-shows, Achievement Prep’s Assistant Vice Principal Tanya Tilghman and her colleague, Akisha Swann, look after the educational wellness of their students.
Their goal is to help kids like Safari, who has missed 57 days of school, feel well-cared for as they navigate through the new and unfamiliar territory of virtual learning.
After the pandemic firmly rooted itself in place, school districts and teachers had to immediately adapt their teaching strategies and virtual classes became the norm.
But, there were still some struggles and challenges with students missing classes.
Wanting to do better, these two began to work in tandem to make sure their remote students are getting everything they need out of their education.
For some students, like 1st-grader Safari, inconsistent housing can be a very real issue.
She often shuttles between her mom and dad’s house, and sometimes her laptop can accidentally get left behind between moves.
A call to her grandma eventually fixes that, but it can be problematic when Safari isn’t able to log into her classes consistently.
For some kids, slow and spotty internet speeds can block their ability to show up to class, which is exactly what Safari’s mom had to deal with.
Mom was forced to choose which of her two children could log in.
Thankfully, a better solution came along when the educators gave dropped off a hotspot that was donated by Verizon Wireless.
So now the two kids can both get online at the same time.
When 3rd grader Devon Flood got a house call from the duo, he had already missed school a whopping 36 times.
His excuse was something that a lot of other kids dealt with, too.
As you can see, he had other siblings hanging around the house with him.
This led to additional distractions that he normally wouldn’t have had to deal with in a regular school setting.
However, it turns out the real culprit to his ongoing absenteeism was his sleep schedule.
Since he didn’t have to get up early and commute to and from school every day, Devon often stayed up as late as 11:30 pm.
That’s when his teacher immediately him straight about the importance of sleep.
“No, no, no. That’s too late! You have to get a good night’s sleep. Otherwise, your brain won’t be able to get as strong as it needs to get.”
In reality, though, there’s just no place like a real physical school setting.
“Once they’re in our care, we can control the schedule. We can keep them on task, we can keep them learning and focused in a way that home just doesn’t always work out.”
Watch the video below to learn more about this heartwarming story.
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