Attendance is Key!!
Students who are accepted and enrolled in any of our programs must adhere to attendance guidelines. The Grass Valley School District receives funding from the State to provide Before and After School Programs that are based on attendance. Students who are accepted, registered, and enrolled are expected to participate and attend ALL days that the program is in operation. Additionally, to receive funding, evidence of students attending the entire program each day must be submitted to the State.
Beginning in the 2025-26 school year, attendance rates less than 80%, and/or students who are not participating regularly will be at risk of disenrollment from the program. If we do not maintain an overall 85% attendance rate with the State, our program funding will be decreased, and perhaps eliminated. This could result in shutting down the program, or reducing the amount of families we can serve and eliminating our ability to provide care for GVSD students.
Inconsistent attendance can be cause for other issues also. Site Supervisors pre-order snacks and meals based on registered families. In order to operate an ASES/CCTR program, we have to provide food and nutrition to all students. Food that gets wasted due to students not showing or not staying in the program is a problem area that consistently needs to be addressed. Every child that is enrolled has a meal ordered for them, so if they are not in attendance, or they are released early within minutes after school, it has to be thrown away.
When managing attendance, staffing also becomes a concern as GVSD is funded by the State to provide one after school employee for every 20 students enrolled. If we enroll 85 students, we receive funding to pay for 5 staff. If only 65 students show up to the program, we don’t receive funding for 2 employees. Then these staff have to be sent home to cover costs which impacts hiring and has many other negative implications.
Students in ASES/CCTR programs receive first priority to Expanded Learning Opportunities (ELOP). These include Center for the Arts opportunities, sports clubs, music lessons, and much, much more. Here, funding is used from the State to hire vendors and outside agencies to come in and help provide skills and lessons to our students. We enter into contract agreements based on how many students will be participating. Again, if students don’t show up to the after school program, or leave early, or leave in the middle, we are paying for a service that is not needed and wastes time and energy and funding. So remember, Attendance is Key!!