The Student Absence Crisis in Philadelphia is Only Getting Worse

Many students in Philadelphia aren’t attending school due to a multitude of issues stemming from absent parents to homelessness.

Almost half the students in Philadelphia are considered chronically absent meaning they miss at least 10% of the school year. One of the schools with the worst attendance issues in Philadelphia is Strawberry Mansion with only 10% of kids in Mansion’s attendance zone going to school. The school’s made for 1800 students, but with only 200 going, they don’t even use the top floor.

While Philadelphia schools mainly resort to truancy court for excessive absence, the solution isn’t that simple. 

“Instead of trying to just take them to court, you need to talk to them one on one to find out what they're going through,” Lelache, a senior at Strawberry Mansion who was absent for 2 months last year due to homelessness, said. 

Truancy court isn’t the only solution Philadelphia schools have come up with though. Truancy Intervention and Prevention Services (TIPS) is a program for parents to get to the bottom of why their child is truant, find the resources required to get them back in school, and maintain their attendance.

“What we try to do is partner with our parents because there might be things that have caused the student [to be absent] that we may not have been aware of like death in the family.

Sometimes students or families don't be the most forthcoming about those things,” Tyrone Neal, a school counselor at Carver E&S, said in an interview.

Truancy in Philadelphia has also been getting progressively worse according to Carver E&S’ case manager Kevin Sanchez. The COVID-19 pandemic threw many students off of their normal routine of getting up and going to school everyday. 

“As a parent myself, I understand that it's crazy,” says Kevin Sanchez, “Sometimes we just forget on top of the million things that we have to do.”