Bibb County Superintendent urges parents to send kids to school daily

Bibb County School leaders say attendance has slightly improved this year but remains below their goal as they continue efforts to reduce absenteeism.

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Attendance in schools has been a ongoing issue around the country. Here in Middle Georgia, tThe Bibb County School District says it is constantly addressing this issue by encouraging their students to attend school daily to retain a solid education.

The school district held an attendance pep rally at Ballard Hudson Middle School Tuesday to encourage students to attend class as much as possible. The event featured special guest Tex James of Power 107.1, who used music and motivation to encourage attendance.  

Bibb County School Superintendent Dr. Dan Sims says the district has seen minimal improvement in attendance since the school year started. He says they have seen issues in several areas. 

“This is really a call to all our parents and community,” he said. “Please, please send your kids to school. They need to be here. It’s their lifeline, and we need them here every day. There’s been issues with Monday and Friday absences. I just don’t understand, and students are just not showing up to school. Numbers are a little bit down as far as chronic absenteeism is concerned, but we don’t see what we need to see right now.”

Sims says they measure attendance constantly, and their numbers aren’t where they want them to be. Sims believes it all starts with the parents and the community encouraging their kids to attend school. 

“We’ve set as a metric to have no more than 17.5% chronic absenteeism,” he said. “Last year we ended at 27.5%; we want to reduce that by 10%. Our daily metric is to have 90% or more of our students at school every single day. We measure it daily, and right now we’re sitting at about 91-92%, so we’re below that measure.”

Instructional coach Marcus Bridges says he hopes Tuesday’s rally will continue to encourage students to attend school and will help carry them on into high school and college with good attendance.  

“We have a lot of initiatives that we’re pushing, and I think this pep rally is a good idea to go ahead and get them excited about coming to school every day,” he said. “Some kids live up the road and walk considering different conditions, but it’s amazing that they were still able to get to school no matter how cold it is outside. We still had a good number of kids come and be ready for school.”