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Attention helps build attendance
By KENT FISCHER
© St. Petersburg Times, ELFERS -- Cookie Lee starts work each morning by calling the stepfather of one of her students. She calls twice, in fact, before she even leaves the house. "Good morning, this is Cookie Lee from Mittye P. Locke Elementary School," she cheerily says into the telephone each morning. "It's time to get up. I'll see you at the school in about two hours." Lee calls this particular family twice each morning because they have a horrendous track record of getting their four kids to school on time. Last year, each of the children missed school or was tardy more than 35 times. One day last week, Lee called the stepfather three times -- twice before she arrived at school and again later in the morning after the kids failed to show up for class. "He said, 'Oh, I'm sorry, I fell back asleep,' " Lee said of the stepfather's reaction to her third call. "I told him, 'It's still not too late. Get them here.' " "Getting them here" is Cookie Lee's specialty. As the attendance officer at Locke Elementary, she's in charge of the school's crackdown on truants. She's not above rousting groggy parents with early-morning wakeup calls, making surprise visits to truants' homes or otherwise nagging moms and dads about getting their kids to school. (Her own daughter, a senior at Ridgewood High, has had perfect attendance since elementary school.) Lee also uses a team of aides, an informal network of community agencies and a kind heart to help families overcome the issues -- and excuses -- that keep kids out of school. But her most important weapon may be old-fashioned persistence. "We get cursed at, hung up on, doors slammed in our face," Lee says of the efforts made by herself and Lydia Kruk, the school's social worker. "We just keep coming back." Only in its second year, Locke's truancy crackdown is showing promise. The year before Lee and Kruk started their effort, 121 students missed more than 21 days of school, the district's benchmark for identifying potential truants. At the end of the program's first year, Lee had cut that number to 80. In 1999-2000, Locke's daily attendance rate ranked 27th out of the district's 30 elementary schools. At the end of last school year, it ranked 16th among 32. "That's a strong move," said Paul Holden, the district administrator in charge of truancy issues. "That's pretty hard to do. They must be doing something right." While proud of Locke's improving attendance, Lee said the success is the result of a team effort, citing the work of Kruk, the social worker, and the 11 paraprofessionals that Lee supervises. But the fact remains that before Lee was made the school's attendance officer, Locke, like most schools, didn't have anyone on the staff whose job it was to tackle truancy day in and day out. At most schools, truancy efforts often fall on social workers, who are spread among several schools. "I simply couldn't do it," said Kruk, who serves Locke and two other schools with a combined enrollment of about 3,000 children. "I'm only here (at Locke) one day a week." Lee has no formal training in social work or education. She's worked as a banker, a substitute teacher and a teacher's aide. But when Locke principal Dennis Taylor needed someone to start cracking down on truants, he knew he needed somebody with a persistent personality and a caring touch. "Parents get to know her and trust her," Taylor said. "Once she shows a family that she's trying to help them, you see a complete turnaround in their attitude toward school." It's one of the basic facts of education: Kids won't learn if they don't come to school. And each year, hundreds of Pasco kids skip out. Last school year, 6,222 kids missed more than four weeks each, while another 1,456 missed more than seven weeks of school. The problem is worst in local middle schools, where nearly one student in four missed more than four weeks of school last year. Those who try to cut truancy rates say waiting until kids get to middle school is waiting too long. The issue needs to be addressed while kids are still in elementary school, where they form their attendance habits, said Circuit Judge Joseph Donahey, who has been an outspoken critic of district and state truancy efforts. In Florida, parents can be taken to court over their children's truancy. But that happens only in the most egregious cases and it takes years to get to that point. Besides, said Donahey, such programs don't work because there are myriad issues that impact a child's school attendance. A family's problems with transportation, drug abuse, joblessness and housing can all affect a child's attendance. Failing to chip away at the big picture usually doesn't boost a child's attendance, Donahey said. That may be why Locke's efforts are proving so successful. Trouble oversleeping? Lee gives wakeup calls and buys parents alarm clocks. No school supplies? The shelves in Lee's office are stocked with goodies. Need new clothes for school? Lee and her aides run a clothes closet that hooks parents up with new shoes, sweaters, shirts and jackets. Child sick? Lee knows doctors and dentists who provide free or reduced-price care to needy families. Lee and her aides put together the school's annual holiday food baskets and gift drives for needy kids. They organize parenting workshops. Lee has even found ways to get late electric bills paid for needy families. Last year she helped a homeless family find affordable housing and scoured local merchants for cheap furniture. "I'd rather give them a hand up than a hand down," Lee said. "A lot of times that is what they need, a little love and understanding. When we do that, then we can focus on the child, getting them here and getting them involved in school." In her office in a portable classroom behind the school, Lee began calling parents one morning last week. One Locke student had already rolled up 17 tardies. "My main concern is getting him back where he belongs and not being tardy," Lee said to the mom over the phone. "Seventeen tardies is an awful lot." The mom replied that her husband had recently left her and she's been forced to move to Palm Harbor. She's having to drive her son to Locke each morning and she's having a hard time making the drive on time. Lee asked if the mom had considered enrolling her son in a Pinellas County school. The mom replied that she doesn't have the necessary paperwork. "I can get that for you," Lee said. "Why don't you come up and see me and we'll fill it out together? All you'll have to do is sign it." The mom agreed and made an appointment to sit down with Lee that same afternoon. "Just in that conversation I've found out what the problem was," Lee said. "Now I can help." Earlier in the day, a mother showed up at the front office asking for Lee. A few days earlier, Lee had sent the mother a letter noting that her daughter had already piled up a dozen tardies and absences. "She's been sick," the mother said. "I know, but we need to work on it," Lee replied. "If we can get her here, feed her and get her started, a lot of times they feel fine. Sometimes it's better for her to come and try rather than just letting her stay home." The meeting ended with a smile and a handshake and an offer from Lee to help the family any time with any problem. "We know each other now," Lee said after the mother left. "All I want is for them to come in, meet me and show them I'm here to help. Most of the time, it works."
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