1 in 4 U.S. teachers are chronically absent

A. The "flaws" don't apply to all the school districts that were looked at.

B. School teachers aren't the only workers who get pregnant, have a sick child, or lose a parent.

So, even accounting for some errors, are the numbers high compared to other industries/occupations?

Are efforts being taken to remedy the problem, to whatever degree the problem exists?

 

Teacher 'chronic absence' rate exceeds students'

 

I'd be curious to see more analysis of the issue.
All examples used in the story are from 2014, but it doesn't say 2014 was the 'only' year for which data is available; it says it was the last or most recent year for which data is available.
The verb tenses in the lede and first several sentences indicate a longer-term issue, yet all examples cited are 2014.

Anecdotal evidence for absences is not revelatory. People in all jobs in all sectors experience illness, family deaths and tragedies, births, etc.

 

What action do you want to see taken? You raised the issue, yet you seem to be shying away from saying what you think should be done. Why is that?

We don't know how many districts have such flaws in the data. It is one of MANY areas in the report that you posted is imprecise at best. Honestly, if you didn't like the slant of the article, it is exactly the sort of reporting that you would whine about as an example of shoddy journalism.

Nothing in what I posted suggests that schools are unique in that they have workers who get pregnant, have sick children or lose parents. I mentioned maternity leave in that it is another possible flaw in the study. It is possible some districts included teachers on maternity leave in the self-reported statistics. We don't know that, but that is simply another flaw in the report you linked.

I did not bring up sick children. I did bring up the loss of loved ones, not just parents, as a way of pointing out that using data from only one school year is an issue. These may be teachers who never missed a day most of their careers, but something major happened that one school year.

Saying there are "some errors" suggests the number is low and we simply don't know that is the case.

Are the numbers high when compared to other industries and occupations? That was a good question, but you offer no answer. Remember, we are talking about 10 missed days of work to qualify as "chronically absent" by the standard in this study.

 

Exactly my point. The article is unclear and the study is flawed.

 

Certainly the article and reporting are unclear and flawed.
I'll give you that.

I think you'd have to address the issue of national average of sick days allowed for teachers, which is an average of 10 without needing a doctor's note, according to UFT:
How many sick days do teachers have each year? How many personal days? | United Federation of Teachers

That is more than the average U.S. worker in general, according to this report citing Bureau Labor Stats:
The Industry Standard for Sick Days

And 10 sick days taken a year would be higher than, more than double, the U.S. average, according to the study cited in this report:
Calling in sick? This country beats everyone

However, I think the term 'chronic absenteeism' can be unfairly or unclearly used.
One might say the teaching profession as a whole suffers from chronic absenteeism, although I'm not sure the report linked in the first post makes a strong enough case for it.
Yet that does not apply in a teacher by teacher application. Take a hypothetical teacher 10 years into a career. That person may have had a 10-absence year in 2014, but may have averaged 4-5 sick days per year in the previous nine years. That is would be a case of someone taking sick time in line with the national average but having a bad year in 2014.
But when you apply it across the profession, not on an individual basis, it could reveal something more.

I don't think the article does a good job of really looking at the issue, though.

 

The definition of "chronic absenteeism" for the DofEd study was "more than 10 days" ... For a 180-day school year, that's at a minimum a 6%+ absenteeism rate. In the private sector, the termination threshold for absenteeism has long been about 5%.

In reading about this I came across an interesting finding: Absenteeism is lower when the teacher has to actually report the absence to his/her supervisor. It tends to be higher if the teacher can simply call in/log in to some centralized office or service.

 

Would you rather the teachers come to school sick and infect the kids?

 

You are responding to an imaginary post.

 

No, he is asking YF to clarify his position. YF has been particularly vague on this one.

 

Another consideration is how days off are characterized. There are some districts that don't give teachers any personal days off at all, with the argument that they have time off during the summer and the number of days off they get along with the students during the school year. They have to take sick days for something like a child's illness when somebody else might take a personal day.

I'm not saying there is nothing worth questioning here. I'm saying we don't know and that the source YF chose is an unclear article about a flawed study, then refused to offer any suggestion for dealing with the situation.

 

Nothing imaginary about it. What's YF's alternative if he got his wish and teachers' sick days were reduced?.