At first blush, a new Charleston County School District pilot program to pay parents $25 a week to send chronically absent kids to school seems a little crazy, misdirected or just plain wrong. One veteran teacher succinctly described the program like this: “It’s bull crap.”
So why would you pay parents to do what they’re supposed to do? Wouldn’t that just reward irresponsibility, particularly when most parents make sure their kids do what is essentially their job — going to school?
Well, it’s not really that simple, others say. Yes, the pilot program seems counterintuitive at first. But when you’ve tried just about everything else to deal with increased absenteeism after the Covid-19 pandemic — from more programs to making schools more attractive and adding more truancy officers — it’s time for something outside the box.
As one school official explained, the pilot program focused on getting kids back in the classroom because if they’re not in school, they can’t benefit from its learning environment. Furthermore, it relieves teachers of the ongoing burden of trying to catch-up students who have missed school. In turn, this allows them to do more of what they want to do — teach all students.
“When kids are in school, they’re learning,” the official explained. They’re starting to feel more successful and experiencing things going on in school. The hope is that we’re going to change behavior because kids are coming to school.”
A veteran local teacher added the initiative, which district officials say seems to be working in the 10 schools in the pilot program, is a short-term cost for what may be a long-term gain.
“When students aren’t in classrooms, the cost to our communities and their futures is immeasurable,” the teacher said. “If a financial incentive is what it takes to reengage reluctant families and bring students back into learning communities, then it’s worth it. The real goal isn’t just attendance — it’s reconnection, and we need bold, innovative strategies to make that happen.”
District officials say the pilot program pays the weekly stipend to all students with perfect attendance in targeted schools with absenteeism problems, which makes the initiative fair. Over the nine-week study, that could generate $225 for families with students with perfect attendance. The money — said to be less than half of traditional strategies of fines, interventions or awareness campaigns — will come from a fund set up earlier in the year to help schools that need extra help.
School officials note the $25 weekly payment for kids who have perfect attendance during the pilot is tied to limited-use debit cards that can be tracked for how the incentive is spent by parents. Initial data show the money has been used for household expenses like power bills, transportation and groceries.
Getting kids out of negative cycles and into learning cycles for just $25 per week might just be worth it. Schools in Detroit, Oakland and Birmingham reportedly are showing promising results. But if the sweetness of the incentive wears off down the line, it may indeed turn out to be “bull crap.” For now, this may be a short-term, innovative solution to truancy, but the jury’s still out on whether it has legs.
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