Counselors tell House Education bill should prioritize prevention, consistent attendance rules
Loading...
Summary
Two school counselors told the House Education committee the chronic-absenteeism bill should require a statewide model policy, clear rules for excused absences, consistent transfer of attendance records, and more counselor capacity to focus on prevention.
On Feb. 17, the House Education committee continued work on a committee bill that would define chronic absenteeism and require the Agency of Education to produce a model school policy. Two school counselors who testified urged the committee to prioritize prevention, consistent coding of absences, and more staffing resources rather than primarily punitive approaches.
"Students who are chronically absent or missing 10% or more of the school year are at greater risk for academic decline, disengagement, mental health challenges, and ultimately dropping out," said Mikaela Raff, a school counselor at Saint Albans City School. Raff told the committee chronic absenteeism has risen in Vermont and nationally and framed attendance as closely tied to student belonging and support.
Abby Allen, school counseling coordinator at the Center Vermont Career Center, said counselors support the bill's aims but urged the Agency's model policy to provide clearer guidance across districts. "In order to properly track and report attendance data, we would like to ensure, and we should ensure that attendance is included in transferred records," Allen said, arguing consistent records would help receiving schools understand prior attendance patterns.
Both witnesses emphasized nonpunitive, school-based interventions. Raff and Allen listed counselor-led steps they said reduce absences: routine data analysis to identify patterns, individual and small-group counseling for anxiety and school avoidance, family engagement, classroom engagement strategies, and connections to community services. They also recommended time and staffing for home visits and care-team coordination in districts that lack those resources.
Allen gave a concrete example of how inconsistent coding can affect legal processes: she described a case in which a student's absences were repeatedly recorded as excused after caregivers called in, leaving staff unable to notify the state's attorney when unexcused thresholds were expected to be met. "We were told, like, don't contact us unless they hit 20 unexcused absences. Well, they hit 40 excused absences so they were never unexcused," she said.
Committee members questioned whether a specific list of excused absences would be meaningful if superintendents retain broad discretion. S1 said that superintendent leeway could undercut a statewide list; witnesses agreed there is tension but said a clearer state model policy would reduce inconsistency. Members also raised constituent requests to explicitly include activities such as FFA and 4-H on any excused-absence list.
Witnesses described operational barriers that limit counselors' preventive work: in some schools counselors are the primary or sole mental-health professional and are reassigned to duties such as lunch supervision, test proctoring and substitute coverage. Those duties, they said, reduce time for proactive outreach and small-group interventions that can prevent longer-term disengagement.
No formal vote was taken during the testimony. The committee thanked the witnesses and indicated it would hear the next group at 1:30 p.m.
