Nonprofit tackles absenteeism to prevent trickle-down impacts

Former Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada CEO Mike Kazmierski never was afraid of the demands confronting Northern Nevada’s workforce.

Now his latest drive is a new Reno nonprofit he has cofounded with businessman Michael Dermody called Strengthen our Community to help solve some of the region’s multifaceted challenges inherent in education, families, good governance or environmental sustainability. The coalition will partner with community organizations to tackle health care, arts and culture or other areas. Its starting point now in education is chronic absenteeism, something Kazmierski says has a long-term effect on everyone.

“We're focused on things that are not being adequately addressed by the community but are important for the community’s long-term success,” Kazmierski said.

Part of the problem is acknowledging that absenteeism is a problem, Kazmierski said. Students who miss 10%, or a month out of the year, are considered chronically absent. Federal data indicate nationally that chronic absence nearly doubled from 8 million students before COVID-19 to at least 14.7 million students in 2020-21, action research project Attendance Works cites as of December 2023.

In the classroom, teachers have been at work to minimize adverse outcomes on academic success on grades and test scores. The Council of Economic Advisers in 2023 showed absenteeism contributed to the 27% and 45% post-pandemic national test score decline respectively in math and reading. But the community doesn’t realize absenteeism existed before the pandemic to begin with, Kazmierski said.

“If you were to walk into a restaurant with 50 people and ask them to name the top five issues in this region, not one of them would say chronic absenteeism, and yet it will affect our region probably more than anything else,” Kazmierski said. “Financially, we’ve doubled in dropouts, we’re doubling in homelessness, doubling in children who have bordered on poverty — all those issues because we've doubled the number of people that are chronically absent. We're doubling the fallout from that, too.”

SOC’s goal for now is to work primarily with the Washoe County School District and lower its rate by half to a pre-pandemic level from approximately 15,000 students to 7,500 students. Objectives include forming work subcommittees and creating a funding request for Incline Village.

Kazmierski said a task force will provide the messaging to students and their families through a statewide campaign. Members will provide media messaging to discuss why attending school matters to keep students from dropping out of life, he said.

Some of the impacts include the greater economic costs after high school. An uneducated workforce leads to lower wages, an increase in social services to address the resulting homelessness and a reduction in qualified workers who are contributing tax revenue to local governments because students don’t commit to or finish school, Kazmierski said.

“Here, our average chronically absent kid misses 33 school days a year,” he said. “If you miss 33 out of 180, are you actually going to graduate? Are you going to advance? Are you going to basically understand what you need to understand to be promoted to the next grade or are you going to automatically be promoted, which tends to happen?”

Awareness has been trickling out about chronic absenteeism but needs to expand, Kazmierski said. Nevada’s school districts have been trying to encourage students to return to the classroom. Some are using reengagement specialists to approach students and urge them to attend with consistency. Community partners or mentors are offering sessions outside of school hours. Others are trying incentive or giveaway programs, like Carson City Mayor Lori Bagwell’s Attendance Hall of Fame.

Kazmierski said the schools have their hands full with many other daily concerns. Educators now worry about expanding preschool and kindergarten opportunities, providing workforce development and child care for teachers, adopting or examining cell phone ban policies and increasing education funding through the Nevada Legislature. Teachers’ quality of teaching also can be directly affected with a disruption in students’ learning and homework trying to catch them up week after week, he said.

“Everyone’s kids suffer and our scores are reflective of that,” he said.

But educators and advocates need more community support to raise up the next generation, he said.

SOC’s plans that have been developed by stakeholders are intended to provide viable, long-term financial savings, avoid burdens on social services, the judicial system or rehabilitation and deter youth from a life of crime, abuse or foster care.

Kazmierski said SOC is available to discuss its community plan and will build a legislative package for the 2025 session to influence state leaders’ involvement and launch a teacher appreciation campaign.

“It is a taxpayer issue, it is a government issue, but we oftentimes say, ‘Well, that’s a school district issue, let them figure out, I’ve got my own problems,’ ” he said. “Well, your own problems are about to become (the students’) problems that they can't solve without your help because we can't afford to have them in jail right now.

“We can't afford the homeless issues we have right now, but just take all of that and double them. … Now welfare, now this, now that, I mean, the list goes on and on, and we're underfunded to cover all that right now. So with double the impacts, what's going to happen?”

For information, go to socnnv.org.