MANHATTAN — Even without a record-breaking snowstorm, students from low-income households are twice as likely as their more affluent peers to miss school when the mercury dips in the winter months, data show.
That's a trend the city is hoping to reverse by handing out winter coats to needy students.
In partnership with Operation Warm's Coats for Kids Foundation, the Department of Education will provide 13,000 brand new coats to the city’s 32 Community Schools, a subset of public schools, serving elementary school students, officials announced last week.
The goal of Community Schools — where local organizations offer additional supports for students and families, like health services — is to improve student outcomes by addressing challenges students might face outside of the classroom.
“As a result of this donation, we are removing a barrier to attendance during these cold months,” Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña said in a statement.
Absenteeism is one of the strongest predictors of whether a student will graduate from high school — but roughly 20 percent of New York City school kids miss a month of elementary school each year due to absenteeism, statistics show.
While offering coats is a “great start,” it is only part of a “larger puzzle of improving attendance during the winter months,” said Alexandra Meis, co-founder of Kinvolved, an app that teachers can use to communicate with parents in real time when children are late or absent from school.
Meis monitors DOE attendance daily — it was 89.45 percent on the frigid Tuesday this week and 91.55 percent on Wednesday, which was warmer, she noted.
There are several factors that come into play when it comes to cold weather absences, including health, transportation and parent communication, she said.
Asthma, for example, is a huge issue in underserved city schools that her startup works with.
“Winter months trigger seasonal asthma, which causes students to stay home from school,” she explained, adding that 20 percent of children in the Bronx suffer from asthma.
Public transportation is also an issue in student lateness.
“Buses and trains are delayed, students are thus late out of their own control, and some students may forgo attending school altogether,” she said.
Finally, communication with families is critical, but schools often have inaccurate parent contact information, making it difficult for them to communicate with families as often as they’d like to, Meis noted.
“It's important that schools are in constant communication with families especially when rain, snow, and other winter elements come to play,” she said. “There is sometimes a breakdown in communication if school is open or closed with inclement weather. Communicating earlier and often with parents, regarding if a school is either open or closed the upcoming day, could lead to improvement in attendance.”
