What Manitoba is doing to deal with student absenteeism

The Manitoba government is working to keep more kids in school with a new public campaign and school policy directive.

“Students who attend school regularly are more engaged in learning, have a greater sense of belonging to the community and are more likely to obtain a high school diploma,” said Education Minister Wayne Ewasko at a news conference on Monday.

“But, there is no attendance strategy that will work for all students in all schools.”

The public campaign called 'School. Keep Going.' focuses on how school can help students in many aspects in life, from making friends to creating a better future.

Ewasko said this ad campaign will be shared in the coming weeks on billboards, social media, in movie theatres and at schools.

He also announced a new policy directive, which he says all schools will implement by updating their own policies by the end of the school year.

“The directive provides guidance for schools in a number of areas, including common terminology, proactive and preventative practices, monitoring and analyzing and reporting data, responding to chronic absenteeism, coordinated services and, of course, defining roles and responsibilities.”

Pauline Clarke, the chief superintendent of the Winnipeg School Division, said they have been working on the issue of student attendance for many years, even before the pandemic.

“We have known that for many of our students, the regular school day, 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., the regular terms, the regular expectations, it’s not one size fits all,” she said. “Our students are seen as individuals who come with their own strengths, and sometimes their own challenges."

She said what the division is hearing from students, staff and parents is that the system needs to support students. Clarke said this new directive would help students be at school when it is best for them and best for what is happening in their life.

“Maybe they can’t come for a full day every day. But if they can come three days a week for some of the days, then that’s wonderful. That gets them on the path to confidence, friendships and futures.”

One community advocate said this has been one of the most important initiatives he has been a part of.

“If we manage to even get half the chronically absent students attending regularly, we will have made a huge contribution to reducing poverty rates,” said Sel Burrows in a news release.