Winter Break absences cost LISD nearly $200K

Student absences in the days surrounding Winter Break cost the Leander ISD $196,844. Like other states, Texas uses an attendance-based formula for funding school districts. Since the No Child Left Behind Act placed increased emphasis on attendance, districts spend significant resources educating the public about the importance of attendance.


Yet, absences around certain school holidays continue at a significant cost to the local school districts.

For Leander ISD’s annual Winter Break — from Monday, Feb. 3 to Wednesday, Feb. 5, absences skyrocketed. On Friday, Jan. 31, 1,729 students were reported absent. That number doubled to 3,509 — nearly 10 percent of the district’s enrollment — on the Thursday immediately following Winter Break.

The average daily absentee rate is 1,286 students. LISD said that under the current funding formula, the impact of a student’s absence is a loss of $37.58 per day in funding to the district.

During the district’s Winter Break, teachers have a professional development conference, while students are off. Some LISD families refer to this break as “ski week,” and for others, it is a popular time to take big trips.

The trend of high absenteeism this year is consistent with past years.

“The high absences are a concern to all of the board members. We have spoke about it in open session several times,” said LISD board president Pam Waggoner.

“We want our families to enjoy their time off, but we want our parents to set an example for their children that school is important and vacation can wait,” Waggoner said.

At the school board meeting two weeks ago, the 2014-2015 calendar was changed from a three-day Winter Break to a two-day Winter Break. Next year, the LISD staff development time will be condensed to two staff development days and students will be off two days.

“We’ve looked at the calendar and made adjustments based on community feedback to maximize student instruction time,” said LISD spokesperson Veronica Sopher.

“We have eliminated one day from February conference in hopes that those who take the week off in February will think twice about missing three consecutive days of school,” Waggoner said.

“If parents don’t prioritize education, we cannot expect our students to,” Waggoner added.

Critics of the current funding mechanism say that the attendance-based funding system is neither fair to parents or schools, since the cost of basic utilities and teacher salaries are the same whether or not a student is absent for a day.

Attendance-based funding is also targeted for its inequity in funding urban school districts, where high poverty levels correspond to higher absenteeism.

“All 50 states base funding on student population, but students are counted in different ways,” Deborah Verstegen, a University of Nevada education professor, told California PBS station KPBS. While some states use enrollment, others — like Texas — use attendance and absenteeism to determine funding levels.

Called ADA — Average Daily Attendance — Verstegen told KPBS that the ADA formula tends to favor suburban area schools over inner city districts.

Still, absences surrounding LISD’s Winter Break show that even wealthier school districts can be penalized by absenteeism, and while Sopher said LISD administration understands absences for illnesses and major events such as marriages and deaths in the family, the district wants to encourage absences related to vacations be taken during specified vacation dates.

“Our number one priority is student safety, but if families consider discretionary absences for personal reasons, we ask they consider the amount of time a child is going to be losing instruction,” Sopher said.

Clarifying that the funding mechanism isn’t something controlled by a school district, but is a state legislative issue, Sopher said, “We want our students to receive face to face instruction with their teachers and to encourage students getting the most from collaborative time with their classmates,” Sopher said.