Danielle Grant, Director of Indian Education for Minneapolis Public Schools, comments on the American Indian Student Attendance Campaign:
On Wednesday, September 12th, approximately 80 Minneapolis Native students, family, and community members came together at the East Phillips Neighborhood Community Center for the kickoff to the American Indian Student Attendance Campaign. This event was held to initiate a Native community-wide focus on better attendance for our students. The community event included a parent and student panel sharing their personal experiences about school attendance, breakout sessions geared toward students, family, and community organizations as well as a feast and drumming. The event also included a series of pledges geared toward students, parent/caregivers, community members and organizations. The pledge is to commit to a 95% attendance rate for Native American students this school year. We are asking that all of our community members show their support by signing on.
The attendance effort has evolved over the last year with Native people from a variety of organizations getting involved. Minneapolis Public School Indian Education, MIGIZI Communications, Division of Indian Work, Indian Health Board, Little Earth, and Hennepin County's be@school are just a few of the organizations participating in this effort. In October, MIGIZI was awarded a grant from the Otto Bremer Foundation to help coordinate this ongoing work including launching a major public awareness campaign about the importance of school attendance in the Native community. The overall focus is for everyone to come together as a Native Community and work to support all of our youth. Research has shown that better attendance leads to greater academic success. Good school attendance helps make a strong Native community!
If you are interested in becoming involved, please contact
Call 612-348-6041 to verify dates. PGM's are also available online!
Mondays, 3 p.m., Powderhorn Partners
Mondays, 5 p.m., Hennepin County Library—Brookdale
Tuesdays, noon, Division of Indian Work
Wednesdays, 3:30 p.m., Hennepin County Library—North Regional
Thursdays, 5 p.m., Hennepin County Library—Southdale
Success!
Patty Thunder Hawk, Attendance Liaison with Division of Indian Work, recently shared the following success stories with us:
I was assigned a student who had missed 80 days of school. She went to court in the summer. The Judge asked what grade the student was going to be in for the upcoming school year. The mother said, “She was in seventh grade last year and since she missed so much and got F's she will have to repeat seventh grade.” The Judge replied, "No, she is going into 8th grade." The mother was surprised.
The Judge scheduled a review hearing for the fall and ordered treatment. I was happy to report at the review hearing in the fall that the student was attending classes. Her grades had improved to A’s and B’s. She joined the school basketball team. Attendance was no longer an issue for this student.
Also, throughout last school year, I monitored nearly 200 students. Twenty-two students didn't miss a day of school in a month. Three students didn't miss a day of school for two months. I wanted to share this because it shows improvement! The previous year none of my students had perfect attendance for an entire month. The school and Division of Indian Work offer incentives when students reach perfect attendance, for example they get to have refreshments and watch a movie for an hour. They also receive certificates of appreciation when they have perfect attendance for a month.
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