HILO — Students on the Big Island missed more school in a single academic year than most of their peers around the state and country, data from the U.S. Department of Education shows.
The figures, requested as part of an Associated Press analysis, show about one-fourth of the island’s K-12 students were chronically absent, defined as missing at least 15 days of school, during the 2013-14 school year. That number was 19.7 percent statewide and 13 percent nationally.
Na Wai Ola public charter school in Mountain View had the highest chronic absenteeism rate in the state. Ninety-nine students — or 79.2 percent — of the 125 enrolled that year missed at least 15 days of school, statistics show.
West Hawaii Explorations Academy and Ernest Bowen De Silva Elementary School featured among the lowest — 14 of Exploration’s 223 students were chronically absent, or 6.3 percent. At De Silva, that number was 8 percent — accounting for 35 of its 439 students.
Nearly 20 percent of Hilo-Waiakea Complex Area’s roughly 8,840 students missed at least 15 days. In the Ka‘u-Keaau-Pahoa Complex Area, that number was about 32 percent of more than 7,100 students and in Honokaa-Kealakehe-Kohala-Konawaena Complex Area, nearly 25 percent of about 11,500 students.
“If students are missing for an extended period of time, we run into problems,” said Kelsy Koga, principal of Waiakea High School, which had an 11.7 percent chronic absentee rate. “They miss instruction and fall behind. In my opinion, there’s nothing better than being in the classroom with the teaches there to receive instruction.”
Waiakea has kept its daily attendance rate in the “mid to high 90s,” Koga said, in part because of a decades-old “Attendance is Mandatory” policy which requires students who miss more than five days per semester to attend make-up classes.
“For the most part, kids don’t want to miss school because it can affect their classes,” he said.
At Keaau Elementary School, where the chronic absenteeism rate was 22.7 percent, administrators send parents a sequence of letters once absences start to accumulate, Principal Shane Saiki said. As a last resort, the school will even file a neglect petition with Family Court, he said.
Saiki said attendance can also get tricky for Keaau students who live in rural areas not accessible by bus. For example, in the winter months when rainfall is heavy, parents may have trouble driving their children into town, he said.
“As good as their intentions may be, there are sometimes challenges beyond (parents’) control in getting their child physically to school,” Saiki said.
The state DOE “takes (chronic absenteeism) seriously,” DOE spokeswoman Lindsay Chambers said, and included the issue among several priorities in its joint strategic plan with the state Board of Education. The plan is currently under review for 2017-2020.
On its website, the DOE calls being habitually absent a “red flag” that students are headed for academic trouble and potentially dropping out of school.
The department says students who miss school have lower test scores and grades. Information from its school accountability system, called Strive HI Performance System, shows absentee rates statewide have improved in recent years.