(From left) RPS family liaisons Marquis Davis, Nakesha Mills, Arthur Williams and Doron Battle hand out COVID-19 safety flyers and supplies at Mosby Court. (Photo courtesy Richmond Public Schools)
As the pandemic stretches on, difficult home situations or other barriers often prevent students from attending virtual classes. Richmond Public Schools’ community hub program, launched in September, strives to get absent students back on track by intervening early to eliminate academic hurdles and refer families to support services if needed.
Data suggests that virtual classes have exacerbated the chronic absenteeism within the school division. During a presentation to the Richmond School Board in October, RPS Chief Schools Officer Harry Hughes said about 1 in 5 Richmond students were on track to be chronically absent during the first 20 days of the school year — a 3% increase over the previous year’s absenteeism rate. More recent data was not available as of press time.
RPS Director of Family and Community Engagement Erin Brown says students may be unable to attend classes due to technology issues or responsibilities such as babysitting siblings, while others may be struggling with anxiety, food insecurity, housing instability or even family members who are battling COVID-19.
“We know that if a child is missing school, in most cases it’s not that a child just doesn’t want to come to school or the parent doesn’t want to send them; there’s something happening,” says Brown, who oversees the community hub program.
Through the community hub model, family liaisons across three regions — South Side, the East End, and a combined West End and North Side hub — work with school social workers to identify students who have at least five unexcused absences. They then reach out to families either by phone or through socially distanced porch visits to understand why these students are missing classes.
After meeting with families, liaisons can ensure students receive needed resources such as a new Chromebook or Wi-Fi hotspot, and they can connect parents to services, such as a grocery delivery program for East End families established in partnership with the Market at 25th or the RPS Center for Families in Transition to help those in danger of homelessness. Liaisons also regularly conduct community walks in their assigned areas to check in with families and ensure they stay up to date on the latest RPS news.
“A lot of our parents view things through a variety of different lenses … especially if they’ve had some issues with schools themselves,” says Kanika McBride, a family liaison who primarily works with students at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School and who grew up in the city’s East End. “For us, it’s about building authentic relationships to get them to see that we have their entire family’s best interests at heart.”
“We try to keep our families informed because that link hasn’t always been there, so a lot of them are unaware of what is available to them,” adds South Side family liaison Yahusef Medina, who works with Spanish-speaking students attending Huguenot High School.
Over time, Brown says, she hopes to expand the community hub program to ensure that every school in the district has its own liaison — some liaisons currently oversee students at multiple schools — and she plans to establish in-person hubs at local community centers after city schools reopen.
“We see attendance as engagement,” she says. “If you’re not in school, then you’re not engaged, but a big thing is that we really want to empower parents, so it’s about informing them, and that’s where our advocacy and outreach [come in].”
