Buckingham County High struggles with absences

Published 6:42 pm Sunday, January 26, 2025

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Parents and students aren’t listening until it’s often too late. That’s the issue Buckingham County High faculty and staff are dealing with, as they look at ways of reducing the school’s chronic absenteeism problem. 

Over the last two years, chronic absenteeism at Buckingham County High has hovered between 34% to 36%. Currently, it’s closer to that higher mark, school staff told the board of education during their Wednesday, Jan. 15 meeting. They’ve sent letters home, they’ve made phone calls, messaged and sent emails over. But often, they get no response. 

“One of our biggest hurdles is that some of the (phone) numbers aren’t working,” said Buckingham High Principal Damon Talley. “They don’t respond to emails.” 

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Talley said that some students would miss two weeks of school, then show up for a field trip, and go back to missing two more weeks. And so this year, he set some parameters, cracking down on the rules. If any students missed more than 10 days in a class, they wouldn’t get credit for passing it. Out of 641 students, 582 have met that requirement for the first semester. 

Making a change at Buckingham County High

Parents were told, letters were sent out at the beginning, middle and near the end of the semester. Talley even gave students the opportunity to make up the missed time, by coming in for an after school program on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. By the end of the semester, it started to sink in for some students. 

“Once we start telling kids they’re not going to pass the class, I’m seeing a lot more come to school,” Talley said.

It’s produced mixed results. A total of 31 students showed up and started working to make up the time lost at Buckingham County High. As a result, Talley extended the deadline, giving them part of January to finish the work after school. But for the remaining students, they didn’t receive credit for specific fall classes because they missed too many days and then did not even try to make up the time, Talley said. 

“The reality is setting in that this child may not pass,” Talley said. “(So) we’re seeing an influx now. (They realize) the child has an opportunity to make it in.” 

It’s one of several ways staff from the high school have tried to make sure students show up. They’ve even driven out to meet families as far as the county line, picking up a student because a parent couldn’t bring him or her to the building. 

The problem is that during the COVID period, Talley said, a student could miss even 40 days and still pass, so some families got used to it. Now the challenge is getting them back on track to a normal schedule.