How the Assistance League of Albuquerque is helping APS schools curb absenteeism

Aug. 30—In her state of the district speech this week, Albuquerque Public Schools Superintendent Gabriella Blakey cited chronic absenteeism as one of the district's more pressing issues.

"We know we cannot improve student outcomes if our students are simply not in school," Blakey told those gathered at the Berna Facio Professional Development Complex on Wednesday.

Last year, nearly 31% of APS students were chronically absent, according to Blakey. In order to tackle this issue, the superintendent said they need to work on making school more exciting for students.

This challenge of making school appealing and exciting for children is known all too well by Assistance League of Albuquerque members Caryl Ann Gutheniz and Betty Jo Switz. For the past two years, they've made overcoming that challenge their goal through the service league's absenteeism program.

The idea to start the program came about after the Assistance League was selected by Sony Pictures in 2022 to receive a portion of the funds generated by a prop sale from the television show "Better Call Saul."

"We were thrilled about the donation," Switz said.

The league ended up receiving roughly $126,000 from Sony Pictures and was faced with the question of what to do with the funds. As a nonprofit rooted in the community for over 60 years, the Assistance League already had programs helping the unhoused, women and children who had experienced violence and a scholarship for those pursuing a post-secondary education.

But with the new funds, the group had the opportunity to start a new program of its choosing.

Gutheniz, a former elementary school teacher, came up with the idea to start a program aimed at helping schools tackle absenteeism.

"We wanted to pick something that we could do in the community, and absenteeism was starting to be a big deal," she explained.

It was decided that the league would act as the financiers in the program. It would ask the schools interested in joining the program to come up with a school-wide plan on how they would curb absenteeism, and if it was approved by the league, the group would provide that school with $5,000 to pay for and develop that plan.

In total, the league sent out requests to join the program to 32 schools across APS and received 10 proposals. Eight were selected and enrolled in the program in spring 2023.

Those eight schools were Armijo, Hawthorne, Kit Carson, Lew Wallace, Mountain View, Valle Vista, Mission Avenue and Helen Cordero elementary schools. The Assistance League, which formed a committee to oversee the program, provided liaisons to each school.

Some schools opted to reward students with prizes such as books or water bottles, while other schools used the funds to host pizza or ice cream parties. Each school was free to use the funds as they saw fit.

At the end of the semester, the schools saw an average attendance improvement of 18.4% among their students, according to the Assistance League of Albuquerque.

Going into its second year of the program, the league is optimistic it can make another significant difference in student attendance.

"The data is showing that something's working and the enthusiasm from the students is there," Gutheinz said. "We've got these kids to attend school and we're seeing an increase in their academic achievement and that's making a difference."