An aging local population and a high number of people moving to other communities to find jobs are among the reasons the Wisconsin Rapids School District had one of the largest enrollment declines in the state, the district’s superintendent said.

In 2011, the graduating class was larger than usual, and this school year’s incoming class was small, contributing to the district having 204 fewer students, said Colleen Dickmann, Wisconsin Rapids Public Schools superintendent.

“We’ve been in decline with enrollment for years,” Dickmann said.

For the 2011-12 school year, the Wisconsin Rapids district attracted more students through open enrollment, Dickmann said. The school offers both a virtual school and blended school experience, she said. A virtual school is one in which the child learns from home using a computer. A blended school is one in which the child takes part in virtual school but also goes to a school building for some classes.

The School District also has done a survey of parents who have enrolled their children in other districts. The majority of parents say they work in another school district and want their children in school near where they work, Dickmann said.

For the rest of the article, go to Wisconsin Rapids School District loses 204 students

According to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, in the 2003-04 school year 18.1 percent of Racine Unified School District students were considered habitual truants.

In 2004-05 the number of habitual truants dropped to 9.7 percent; in 2005-06 the number decreased further to 8.7 percent and in 2006-07 the number fell even further to 8.1 percent. In 2007-08 the number rose slightly to 9.1 percent and then made significant jumps in 2008-09 and 2009-10 to 14.5 percent and 15.5 percent respectively.

While it’s impossible to determine the exact reasons why there were significant reductions in the number of chronic truants and the subsequent (and equally significant) rise over the past two school years – there are a number of factors that I believe contributed to the decline and may explain why we are seeing the truancy rate creeping back up again.

In the early 2000s, members of the community took notice of the shocking number of RUSD students who were considered chronic truants.

This observation engendered a great deal of concern and spurred the creation of the Racine County Truancy Committee. The committee, which was comprised of individuals from a broad cross-section of the community embarked on a mission to turn those numbers around. The committee had two primary orders of business – create a comprehensive truancy plan for the school district (RUSD was only the second or third district in the state to actually ratify and implement a community developed truancy plan) and raise awareness of truancy as a problem, not only for the schools but for the community as a whole.

As a group, committee members were energized and highly motivated to find solutions to the problem of chronic truancy. There were no “singular” answers, no finger pointing and most importantly – no “turf issues.” Individuals with very different backgrounds and varying perspectives found themselves working closely together in pursuit of a common end.

Within the past year, RUSD launched the Virtual School online education program; the Racine United Way announced plans to collaborate with RUSD and the community to bring state of the art programming to at risk elementary school students and the City of Racine began development of the After School Zones partnership with a wide array of community and public sector agency partners.

For the rest of the article, go to Commentary — Despite efforts, Racine truancy rate is back on the rise