Detroit Public Schools To Be Recipient Of New Program

Did you know that Detroit schools both public and charter have by far the highest chronic absenteeism of any major city in the United States?

Close to 70% of the children are chronically absent.

Did you know that Grand Rapids also has extremely high chronic absenteeism?

Chronic absenteeism is missing ten percent or more school days. Many children miss four or five days each week. Michigan ranks 40th among states in the United States.

Last year a 501 (c) 3 non-profit called Helping Kids Go To School (HKGTS) was started by the former president of Crime Stoppers of Michigan John Broad in partnership with the Council of Baptist Pastors and the Detroit Public Schools Community District to work with families to attack the problem of chronic absenteeism.

HKGTS believes that the solution to this problem is to have trained and certified coaches help families overcome the challenges they face in getting their kids to school.

What does this mean ? Chronic absenteeism starts in kindergarten. It gets worse year after year until the child has no idea of what is going on in class. A chronically absent child has little or no hope of ever having more than a minimum wage part time job. He/she is much more likely to become involved with the criminal justice system - either as a victim or a perpetrator.

This is not the fault of the child. Remember chronic absenteeism starts in kindergarten.

Pastors hand pick potential coaches from their churches who are then trained by HKGTS to work with families chosen by the school.

Remember this is a non profit organization that wants to bring better futures to children; working together we can help reduce the percentage of chronic absenteeism in more schools.