Sick kids

There are definitely a few bugs going around this season, and one needs to look no further than the nearest classroom for proof.

With about five weeks of school behind them, many schools within the Ector County Independent School District have experienced exceptional absences rates during the past week or so, and at least a few schools are coping with as much as 15 or 20 percent of their daily student populations at home sick with a variety of symptoms, most notably fever, nausea, aches and diarrhea.

Some school districts across Texas have seen similarly high rates of illnesses this fall, and a handful have gone as far as closing schools, though that option is currently is not on the table at ECISD.

So far, local schools seem to be coping, despite the influx of illness, and the state may offer ECISD an out when it comes to attendance-based funding.

One school, Carver Early Education Center, reported 75 absences on Friday, a record 22 percent of the school’s approximately 340 students, Carver principal Sally Navarro said. On Monday, however, the number of student absences dropped slightly to 62, or about 18 percent of its overall enrollment.

Of Friday’s absences, she said, about five were confirmed cases of flu, but most of the students reported coming down with flu-like symptoms.

“It started since the beginning of school,” Navarro said. “Children have been out. I know we’re in for a difficult year.”

But Carver, though it may be on the higher end of absences, is not alone.

ECISD Director of Communications Mike Adkins said this year’s spike in absences can’t be completely attributed to the much-publicized H1N1 virus.

“We definitely have illness, but we’re not at any sort of panic point or anything like that,” he said. “We hope a lot of the absences here are precautionary.”

According to numbers compiled by individual schools that averages student attendance data for last week’s five school days, absentee rates varied between schools from 3 percent at Milam Magnet Elementary to more than 15 percent at Carver.

Most schools, however, reported an average absence rate of between 6 and 8 percent for the week.

Adkins said absence rates at or near 10 percent are considered unusually high, and anything more than 10 is particularly rare.

But the district’s relatively high absence rates are a cause for precaution, not panic, he said, and school closures as a result of illness are “not even a consideration at this point.”

Elsewhere in the state, however, three entire districts already have closed down completely because of inordinately high absence rates among both teachers and students, TEA spokesperson DeEtta Culbertson said, but most of these district’s were among the state’s smaller ones in terms of enrollment.

The decision to close schools completely would come through a combination of local officials’ discretion and a certain set of guidelines on a state level, she said. Usually, a district can choose to close a school if it is experiencing teacher and student absence rates so high that they interfere with schools’ operation.

“It’s kind of going to have to be on their best judgment on what to do,” Culbertson said.

Locally, if ECISD schools continue to accrue absences, Adkins said, the district’s attendance-based funding from the state may be in jeopardy, but the Texas Education Agency in the past has provided waivers for extenuating circumstances that could offset the district’s attendance-based funding.

While Culbertson said these waivers are an option, the district would have to apply for them throughout the year before the district submits its overall attendance averages in the spring.

Meanwhile, local principals are encouraging parents to monitor their child’s health and to keep them home if they seem to be getting ill.

Also, individual campuses are stepping up their cleaning efforts and instructing students how to do things like cough and sneeze into their sleeve to curb the spread of germs.

Dowling principal Sherry Palmer said her school has employed all of these methods, especially after Friday’s 17 percent absence rate.

She said the absence rate declined Monday, but the school is keeping up its guard.

“It makes you feel really badly, looking into students eyes and seeing that they’re sick,” Palmer said.

TOP 10 ABSENCE RATES FOR ECISD
   Individual school rates based on average percentage of absences to total enrollment for five-day school week ending Friday (does not include Advanced Technical Center, Teen Parent Center, Alternative Center, Virtual High School or Youth Center).
   >> Carver: 15.4 percent.
   >> Lamar: 13.8 percent.
   >> Pease: 13.6 percent.
   >> Gonzales: 12.8 percent.
   >> San Jacinto: 11.7 percent.
   >> Fly: 11.6 percent.
   >> Nimitz: 11.4 percent.
   >> Travis: 11 percent.
   >> Cameron: 10.9 percent.
   >> Bowie: 10.8 percent.
   Source: Ector County Independent School District enrollment report for Sept. 25.