To The Editor:

I was interested in Jenna Visca’s article in the April 10 Bee covering the presentation by LeeAnn Browett, NHS Dean of Students. She noted that her primary mission as Dean is to improve attendance and address chronic absenteeism at the school. The multiple strategies that she outlines: proactive support and interventions, partner with and support families and provide support for students with higher needs are a first line of support to bring students back to school.

She also provides some critical insights into why students become long-term absentees and provides some strategies for tracking percentages and numbers and reports on some interventions being used.

What is lacking in her analysis is an answer to the question of Why Do Students Choose to be Absent from School? Especially on a long- term basis? If we can ascertain the most common reasons can we develop a strategy or strategies to address their reasons?

While I was a professor at Lehman College in The Bronx, I helped to create and develop a long-standing partnership with the High School for Teaching and The Professions. Our first project entailed creating a Pre-Teaching Program so that High School Juniors and Seniors could gain experience at tutors, co-teachers and (in a few cases) teachers.

These Pre-Teaching students became the extra eyes and ears in the classrooms in which they served and also in classes they attended. They noted that one of the major problems for LTAs (Long Term Absentee Students) was that they had missed so much of the ground work for many lessons/units/topics that they were lost, which led to boredom and frequent acting out followed by further absences.

The reasoning was that if we could provide extra-class tutoring and lessons we could help the LTA students to catch up to where their classes were in the curriculum and then go back to their regular classes with a better understanding of the materials being taught and not feel so far behind.

The concept became a Federally Funded Proposal — The Little Red Schoolhouse — Two licensed teachers, one math and science and the other humanities and English staffed the LRSH as part of their assignment. The teachers in the classes the LTA student attended provided lesson plans and the Pre-teaching students reviewed the lessons and materials with the LTAs. As the LTA was caught up they were able to go back to that class. Eventually LTAs were able to catch up in all classes.

Anne Rothstein

Newtown