Olga Tsakhniv, 14, spends most of her time at Shuksan Middle School in class with her peers. But for the last period every day, she goes to the school office, sits on a couch and completes her language arts class online.
For Tsakhniv, it’s “calming” to complete her final class in a quiet space with no distractions. Previously, she felt overwhelmed by a full day of classes in a building of nearly 700 people and would often leave school before the day was up, said Principal Alli Chryst.
Now, Tsakhniv usually stays for the entire school day. She’s one of several students at Shuksan with a similar setup.
The online option, piloted at Shuksan last year, is one of the many ways Bellingham administrators are trying to get students back to school — and keep them in school post-pandemic.
The number of students regularly coming to school has plummeted nationally, after significant disruptions caused by COVID-19.
Laura Burke, a mental health specialist with the school district, said remote/online schooling during the pandemic perpetuated the anxiety that kids might already feel with academics.
“So [when they came back in-person] that increased anxiety came in because everything was novel to their systems,” she said. “School for a lot of kids was a new stressor because they weren’t used to it.”
In Bellingham, in the last full year before COVID-19 (2018 to 2019), 84.2% of students had “regular attendance,” meaning they missed less than two days of school monthly, on average, according to data from the state’s education agency.
In 2022-23, the first full year back to in-person school, only 65.1% of students had regular attendance.
Statewide numbers follow a similar trend: In 2018, 84.9% of Washington students had fewer than two absences per month, compared to 70% in 2022-23.
The data includes excused absences and sick days. That means a student who goes on a trip with family, or gets sick a lot could be considered chronically absent.
But the district frames it like this: In a year, missing two days of school per month is 10% of a year. Over 10 years, that adds up to a full year of school missed.
“Kids who come to school more frequently end up being more successful all the way through: higher graduation rates, higher success rates, healthier outcomes,” spokesperson Dana Smith said.
The reasons for absenteeism vary widely: Katie Hannig, a spokesperson from the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), said there’s been a lasting impact from the pandemic on student attendance statewide, including a decreased awareness of the importance of in-person learning. Socioeconomic challenges, and factors like academic struggles, bullying, transportation and more, can also contribute to absenteeism, Hannig said.
A big part of the issue, Bellingham administrators think, is that students just got out of the habit of going to school during the pandemic. For more than a year, administrators told students not to come to school when they weren’t feeling well.
Now, they’re trying to convey the opposite, said Jay Jordan, Bellingham Public Schools’ assistant superintendent of teaching and learning.
“We were part of that, like everybody else, just trying to keep people safe,” Jordan said. “I think we’re certainly far enough from that that we now need to get back to, ‘Hey, kids can come to school even when they’re not feeling well.’”
Co-President of the Columbia Parent Association Holly Pai said parents have been challenged by the about-face in messaging.
“I think COVID just really made clear how our kids pass all of these things to each other, what a germ pool school actually is,” she said. Pai said there are clear, “bright lines” on when to not send your child to school, like vomiting or a fever, but said it’s harder to decide when it comes to less serious illnesses. Messaging from the district on those instances has been unclear to her, she said.
Beyond illness, changes to kids’ “distress tolerance” during the pandemic has also likely impacted attendance, Burke said. Before, students got on the bus because “it’s just what we do,” she said.
“Once that cycle stops, it can be hard to restart it,” Burke said. “How do we build back the idea, that knowledge that kids intrinsically had of, I can do hard things, I can get up?”
Data shows progress in regular attendance rates
The good news? The data shows progress.
Overall, regular attendance improved from 65.1% in 2022-23 to 69.9% in 2023-24. Most schools in the district recorded a small increase in their attendance rates, according to data from OSPI.
It’s likely due to a coordinated push by the district, and by school leaders to target attendance challenges. At the beginning of the school year, the district sent out an email to families on “why attendance matters,” emphasizing the district’s desire to “partner” with families on getting kids to school.
Hannig from OSPI said that awareness of the importance of attendance is critical, as is fostering relationships and student connections, and sending “nudge letters” to let families know of their child’s attendance challenges.
School-by-school, Bellingham principals pilot their own programs and approaches.
Columbia Elementary
At Columbia Elementary, bubbles and music on Friday mornings and personalized cards from administrators to families help build connections, Principal Minh Nguyen said.
Leadership opportunities can also be a game-changer for elementary students, Nguyen said. She taps students with attendance challenges to lead the morning announcements.
“Student-led jobs give them a little bit more connection and belonging, and purpose and leadership,” she said. Regular attendance rates improved at the school over the last year, from 70% in 2022-23, to 74.4% last year.
Cordata Elementary
At Cordata Elementary, Principal Craig Baldwin said the school has focused on “belonging, welcoming, love and building community.”
Cordata is one of the most diverse schools in the district, Baldwin said. Thirty-five percent of students are English language learners, and 66.8% of students are low-income, according to state data. More than 10% of students are homeless.
It also had the lowest attendance rate of any elementary school in the district, but its rate is increasing. In the 2022-23 school year, only 53.2% of students were showing up to school nearly every day. Last school year, just under 60% of students had regular attendance.
Baldwin wore a shirt that said, “We belong, we are loved,” walking around the school, showing off art projects by students that showcase their identity.
He said every morning on their announcements, they repeat the mantra.
“It seems less tangible, but I think it’s probably the most important factor to shifting the success of students and engagement and coming to school,” Baldwin said.
With students who have bigger issues with absenteeism, the school “problem-solves,” to find what adjustments would make the kids be more “successful coming to school,” Baldwin said.
Parent Amanda Barsoum said that problem-solving helped her son.
Declan, a fourth-grader at Cordata, struggled to go to school earlier this year, after experiencing some culture shock after returning from a semester abroad in Egypt staying with grandparents, Barsoum said.
“We honestly didn’t think that we were going to be able to keep him in school,” she said. He was often getting sent to the principal’s office, and said he was bored in school.
Barsoum met with Baldwin and other Cordata leadership, who set up a learning plan and a “reward system” to keep his motivation and interest up in school.
He was also given opportunities to help younger students, Barsoum said. She said that made the biggest difference: “He’d come back [from school] so excited, telling me how much he got to help.”
Addressing challenges outside of school, to fix problems in school
For some students, the challenge of coming to school is a symptom of broader challenges they’re facing in life outside of school.
It’s a situation Ruvi Martinez knows all too well: When she was a kid, her father was deported, and her main priority was “going home and taking care of my siblings — figure out what to eat at night, figure out what to wear the next day.” She struggled to attend and pay attention in school.
Now, as the site coordinator at Shuksan for Communities in Schools, a nonprofit organization that focuses on supporting chronically absent students, she works with around 20 students to provide them with one-on-one support and comfort. She hosts lunch groups, where they discuss boundaries, emotions and self-love.
These students often face a lack of food, nutrition and clothing, Martinez said. OSPI data shows that only 46.8% of homeless Bellingham students regularly attend school. Only 59.3% of low-income students regularly attend.
Students can receive support through the district’s Family Service Center, but Communities in Schools also provides resources: Martinez manages a clothing closet, and another closet of feminine hygiene products, notebooks, school supplies and more.
Martinez is particularly passionate about providing students with hygiene products because that’s something she struggled with when she was a kid.
“Sometimes these kids go through so much at home or even outside in the community that it’s hard for them to run to someone they can trust,” she said. “I’m working really hard so they can trust me.”
Options at Shuksan
Online learning options, like the one Tsakhniv takes part in, are one of Shuksan’s efforts to be “more creative” in supporting students post-pandemic, Chryst said. About five Shuksan students are dual enrolled with the district’s homeschool-parent partnership, and more take one or two classes online a day like Tsakhniv.
Chryst said the pandemic, plus increasing access to social media and the internet with smartphones, increases the general social anxiety and pressure of being a middle schooler.
“As much as we try to support and nurture and help them feel like that, we can’t compete with their peers and the expectations that they’re putting on themselves,” she said. “If they wake up in the morning and don’t feel like they’re going to measure up to what they’ve seen or heard or experienced online, then it’s that much easier to just stay in bed and hide.”
About 66.1% of students at Shuksan regularly attended school in 2023-24, up from 60.3% the year before.
Shuksan tries to keep students engaged through what administrators call “positive behavior intervention systems” — essentially rewarding good behavior and creating opportunities for students to be excited to come to school.
Sixth-graders get awarded “paw prints” for good behavior, specifically, students who are actively engaged in class. On Fridays, they can spend those paw prints on little toys, snacks or opportunities.
In seventh grade, the school sets up a “marketplace economy.” Students can earn “marketplace money” with their teacher’s face on it — then, as a class, use that money to buy experiences, such as free time in the gym. The school also hosts three-times-a-year marketplaces where students can make and sell food or crafts.
In eighth grade, students who earn “paw prints” are entered into a raffle — winners get rewards like a “tailgate,” organized by all the teachers.
Chryst said she believes that academics come second in middle school.
“If they can come out of this knowing how to be a kind, productive human and have a sense of who they want to be as an adult, how do they want to contribute to society, showing up day after day when you don’t want to is a part of that,” she said.
“… And if we can nurture that and help them learn that, then the content and academic side of things will come.”
Charlotte Alden is CDN’s general assignment/enterprise reporter; reach her at charlottealden@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 123.
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