Pasadena Unified Knocks on Doors to Get Students Back in the Classroom

The Pasadena Unified School District launched “I’m in Student Recovery Day” Wednesday as a full day dedicated to the district’s year-long initiative to raise awareness in the community about the importance of school attendance.

Around 50 PUSD staff and community stakeholders gathered in the Pasadena High School auditorium Wednesday morning as they geared up to volunteer their day setting out into the city neighborhoods to make contact with families with students who have not returned to school this year and offer them direction, resources, and support to bring them back into the classroom.

“This initiative is a partnership between the school district and community members to get out there and try to recover students that have dropped out and encourage students to come back and enroll in school,” said PUSD Superintendent Brian McDonald.

Pasadena Unified officials compiled a list of approximately 100 students from kindergarteners to high school seniors who that have not returned to school this year. The volunteers focused on that group.

“The primary reason for trying to encourage students to be in school is for their own benefit, but it’s also a funding issue since we are funded based on our average daily attendance. We were able to get our attendance rate up to about ninety six percent about three years ago and that translated into well over one million dollars. This money goes back into the classroom,” said McDonald.

A report by the California Attorney General shows that Los Angeles County lost an estimated $172.37 in funding per pupil due to student absences and truancy in the 2014-2015 school year.

Pasadena Unified’s goal is to raise attendance to ninety seven percent by the end of the year.

The volunteers were optimistic about making in-person visits in small groups to the doorsteps of the targeted families with hopes of being able to get their children back to school.

“If they’re not at home we have resources to leave them and we’ll make a note and follow-up,” said PUSD Board of Education Member and volunteer Adrienne Anne Mullen.

According to PUSD Child Welfare, Attendance and Safety Director Eric Sahakian, the reasons for dropping out and low attendance for some students are usually a combination of factors.

‘It’s really a myriad of reasons. It’s about identifying the risk factors and wrapping our arms around families in terms of support that we have both internal and external at PUSD,” said Sahakian who spearheaded the initiative back in 2013 and briefed the volunteers Wednesday morning.

Some factors that result in the permanent absence of students are linked to financial issues, health, negative peer interaction such as bullying and lack of transportation.

The dropout rate for the PUSD class of 2014-2015 was 8.6 percent, graduation rate was 81.5 percent for the same year and the truancy rate for 2015-2016 was a recorded at 37.5 percent, according to a press release.

The District received a grant recently that will expand the district’s adult education offerings to provide students and individuals that are past high school age with options to get their diploma and continue on to higher learning.

“PUSD is partnering with PCC through the adult education block grant. We want to make sure that students have opportunities to continue their education,” said Mullen. “Today’s important because if there are students that have stopped out because they don’t think high school is important, we want to at least link them back through adult education so they can get their high school diploma and on a pathway. It’s never too late.”

McDonald and PUSD staff said they are optimistic about the impact the initiative makes within the community.

“It’s always so uplifting to talk to students who have given up and to see them re-energized and re-engaged and back in school moving towards graduation and on to further success in life,” said McDonald.

To stay up to date with PUSD, visit http://www.pusd.us.