By Jennifer Glickel
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — Two Manhattan schools will take part in a new Department of Education program to reduce chronic truancy in city schools, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced Thursday.
The program, called “Every Student. Every Day,” will be launched in a pilot group of 25 schools throughout the five boroughs that have histories of poor attendance, including the Lower East Side’s Marta Valle High School and East Harlem’s Isaac Newton Middle School for Math and Science.
The program consists of matching 1,500 students who are particularly at-risk for truancy with school mentors who will support the students throughout the school year.
“We are also using data and community support groups in new ways, and reminding students and parents about the importance of going to school everyday,” Mayor Bloomberg said in a statement.
“Too many children miss too much school, and truancy is often a child’s first step in the wrong direction.”
While the average attendance rate at city schools has been increasing in recent years, about 20 percent of all New York City students missed a month or more of school last year.
Marta Valle High School had an attendance rate of 84.83 percent in the 2008 – 2009 school year, which dropped to 81.84 percent in the 2009 – 2010 school year. Isaac Newton Middle School had an attendance rate of 92.79 percent, which increased slightly to 92.83 percent in the most recent school year.
The 25 schools were selected based on data and research conducted by the mayor’s recently formed Task Force on Truancy and Chronic Absenteeism, according to DOE spokeswoman Marjorie Feinberg.
