Our first Family Morning since 2020 was a huge success!
Dear PS 107 Families,
What a joy to see many of you at school on Friday morning for our first Family Morning since 2020! I visited multiple classrooms and saw children and adults engaged in cooking, art, math games, singing, and other learning activities. I can’t wait to see even more of you at our next Family Morning on Friday, February 3rd.
As we embark on a new year, I’d like to take a moment to remind you of the importance of your children attending school regularly, as well as arriving on time. During the height of the pandemic, the NYC Department of Education relaxed some of its in-person attendance guidelines. For instance, last winter, during the height of the Omicron outbreak, students could receive remote instruction if their families had concerns about them attending school during a time when Covid was rapidly spreading.
Attendance policies have since returned to normal, and at PS 107, we strongly believe in the importance of students being present, in-person, daily. Students feel more connected to the classroom community, and, over the course of the pandemic, we have learned that there is no substitute for in-person learning, particularly for elementary school students. Plainly stated, in-person learning is clearly associated with better academic and social emotional outcomes for students.
Over the past few years, student attendance across the Department of Education has declined, and this is also the case at PS 107. Of course, much of this is related to the pandemic and to students being ill and needing to stay home. (To be clear, we are not advocating for sending children to school sick!) Some of these absences are also related to travel, and we saw a significant dip in attendance at PS 107 before and after the recent Thanksgiving and winter holiday breaks. These absences are also often unavoidable, and we believe in the importance of connecting with family members, which for some 107 families means traveling overseas (also an extremely valuable experience).
Sometimes, though, children resist going to school, and it feels easier to let them stay home, rather than pushing them to come to school. In these cases, we strongly encourage you to help your child attend school. If there are underlying causes to their desire to stay home (separation anxiety; feeling like the work is difficult in school; friendship conflicts; etc), our mental health team — School Counselor Sarah Green and School Social Worker Colleen Dondero — is here to help. Please don’t hesitate to reach out!
In the case of unavoidable absences, like illnesses and family-related travel, please be sure to inform your child’s teacher via email about the reason why they won’t be in attendance. We are required to maintain records about children’s absences, and we keep these messages on file. Note that students who miss an average of 2 days of school per month (overall attendance of 80-89%) are considered “chronically absent,” and students who miss more than an average of 2 days of school per month (overall attendance of 79% or less) are considered “severely chronically absent” by the NYC Department of Education. You can check your child’s attendance percentage by going to your NYC Schools Account and clicking on the Attendance tile.
Our school’s Attendance Team meets weekly to review student absences and gather information about students who are either chronically absent or severely chronically absent. If your child falls into one of these categories and we don’t have back-up documentation to explain their absences, we will reach out to your family to see what kind of support we can provide to you and your child.
Finally, a note about lateness: as the mom of a child who is extremely slow in getting herself together and out the door, I truly empathize with how difficult it can be to get your child to school on time. However, this is also extremely important. Every class at PS 107 has morning routines that help children transition to the school day. If your child is consistently arriving late to school, they will miss these routines and will likely feel less connected to their classroom communities. Note that our school day begins at 8:20 am, and children are marked late if they arrive after 8:30 am.
As always, the staff at PS 107 are here to support your child if you need assistance with getting them to school — or getting them to school on time. Please feel free to reach out to our team at any time.
Warmly,
Ms Joanna
PS A PS 107 family needs some support with clothing for their children. Can you assist by ordering items from this wishlist? Many thanks!