The task is to search for a learning plan to which all Kamiakin stakeholders are willing to commit. The due date is spring 2001. In an attempt to drive down student absences, Kamiakin High School has reverted to using a live-voice contact with parents to follow up on student absences. Despite reworking the absence messages on the automated dialer and intensifying the information in attendance letters, the daily average attendance has remained the same. The plan calls for the attendance office staff to contact all parents of students having unresolved absences within 24 hours.
Preliminary indications look positive.
Students are expressing an awareness that more one and two period truancies are being caught. Parents have been appreciative of a live-voice call and the more immediate school contact. Finally, the daily attendance average appears to be inching its way upward. Starting with the class of 2005, next year s incoming freshmen, class standing for the Kennewick School District will be determined by credits earned rather than student age or years in high school. Expected to be approved by the Kennewick School District board this spring will be a policy change requiring all sophomores to have a minimum of 5.0 credits, juniors 10.0 credits, and seniors 15.0 credits by the fall of the school year.