Nobody’s coming to save us, and this is good for us, because how empowering is it for us to know that we can save ourselves?” – Dr. David Kirkland
Recently, ROC the Future Alliance was featured in the news. We were featured for our work co-developing solutions with parents, system partners and youth around chronic absenteeism. A recent report by New York State Comptroller, Thomas DiNapoli, conveyed that last year, 1 in 3 students in our state experienced chronic absenteeism. Chronic absenteeism is defined by the U.S Department of Education as “the share of students who miss at least 10 percent of days (typically 18) in a school year.” In New York, chronic absenteeism increased significantly during the pandemic and peaked during the 2021-2022 school year.
As alarming as the aforementioned statistics are, even more concerning is a trend in “disappearance” from school rolls. According to a recent article published by Dr. David Kirkland, ROC the Future Alliance’s keynote speaker for our 12th Annual State of Our Children Address and Report Card Release, many students have not returned to school settings since the COVID pandemic. Dr. Kirkland writes, “During the pandemic, many of these students disappeared from school rolls entirely. This disappearance is not just logistical; it’s also philosophical. It reflects a system that fails to see students as whole individuals with complex lives and needs.”
In his article, Dr. Kirkland goes on to ask two essential questions: 1.) Where have our children gone? 2.) What can we do to schools to keep them from leaving? These questions, and their potential answers, exist at the heart of ROC the Future Alliance’s mission. As a collective impact organization committed to working across systemic boundaries to ensure we change systems and that every child in Rochester is school ready, successful and supported from cradle to career, we are committed to advancing collaborative action strategies and interventions to address these concerns. In order to collaboratively advance solutions, it is essential that we first understand what Dr. Kirkland calls the “atomic” and “subatomic” data sets that lead to these kinds of alarming trends.
At ROC the Future Alliance, the harvesting of atomic and subatomic data that can co-develop solutions, takes many forms. These forms include: systems maps, community cafes, empathy interviews and participatory action research. To date, we have engaged hundreds of parents, youth, school leaders and others that are not only impacted by cross-sector challenges, but also that can collaborate to formulate solutions. Alliance members like The Children’s Agenda are taking action and have a call to action for our community. Please complete the school absences survey with your children and share widely with your networks. It will help us to get a clearer picture of why students are missing school locally and we can use this data to launch effective interventions. You can access the survey here: English Version – School Absences Survey (surveymonkey.com); Spanish Version – Ausencias Escolares Survey (surveymonkey.com)
To highlight another important example: after analyzing quantitative and qualitative data around affordable housing shortages, evictions and how these trends impacted student success locally, we launched a partnership with Rochester Monroe Anti-Poverty Initiative (RMAPI) as well as Enterprise Community Partners and many other local partners to advance the goal of eliminating homelessness among children in the city of Rochester. After a successful first phase, where early wins included: a shift in local policy to preference Mickenney-Vento families in housing vouchers, as well as the completion of a comprehensive data profile that examined the gaps and intersections of housing and education in Rochester, we are excited to now enter phase 2 of this initiative. In this phase, we are refining and launching collaborative strategies to advance our intended results. Leveraging our root cause analysis and applying what we know from a review of the research about the boosts and blockers for the factors that can keep students in or out of school, we are hopeful that this collaborative effort will ultimately address chronic absenteeism as well as improve education outcomes for Rochester’s most vulnerable children.
At ROC the Future Alliance, our work is about shifting policy, practices, resources, and power structures to benefit youth and families. While we still contend with concerning trends like chronic absenteeism, we are excited and invigorated by the cross-sectors collaborative efforts we are mobilizing to change systems and increase equitable results. As Dr. Kirkland eloquently stated, it is not about waiting for some outside group or force to save us, but instead about aligning resources to ensure agency, autonomy and success so that we can save ourselves.