Attendance in Everyone's Business

In an effort to decrease truancy in Detroit Public Schools, Robert Bobb has declared today, April 26, "Attendance is Everyone's Business Day."

http://www.detroit.k12.mi.us/news/article/1909/

While the name may be mouthful, the article above seems to depict the attendance drive as a policy without much bite to it. The solutions to truancy seem to consist of parents driving their children to school and businesses refusing service to minors on school days. A rally will be held and a parent in-service will provide some ideas for parents to help increase attendance. While these may be good ideas to address the issue, they are certainly a far cry from the kind of administrative changes needed to fundamentally change the culture of truancy that seems to exist in Detroit Public Schools. A better starting point would come directly from the central administration, creating a clear, enforceable attendance policy for the entire district. While some worry that such a policy will result in reduced attendance and graduation numbers, it is necessary if the district hopes to create an environment in which truancy is not an acceptable daily option for students. Short-term losses in enrollment or graduation will be offset by long-term gains in more meaningful metrics, such as college retention rate and standardized test scores. Even more importantly, such measures would require students to attend class with the same regularity as their wealthier suburban peers in order to receive a diploma. If the district continues to resign itself to a student body that will simply drop out if tighter standards are enforced, it will never be able to shed its reputation as a perpetually low-performing system that does not serve the interests of its students nor its community.