Students in Bakersfield just returned to school, and now some local community members are working to help kids stay in school. 23ABC's Dominique LaVigne spoke with community activists and school officials to find out more.
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00:00 Students just returned to school this month and now some local community members are working
00:04 to help kids stay in school.
00:06 23 ABC's Dominic Lavigne shows us how they're helping students get to the classroom.
00:11 For many kids living in this area, walking may be the only way they can get to school.
00:16 Students living within a mile and a half of the campus don't have access to a bus.
00:21 Because of that, community members and volunteers are putting together a walk to school event
00:25 to boost attendance.
00:27 The end of the school day at McKinley marks the beginning of many students' walks home.
00:31 Obviously there's no bus routes in this area due to where the school is positioned.
00:35 Community activist Javon Dangerfield tried to get more kids to come to school each day
00:39 and he's doing it with something called Walk to School Day.
00:42 So we're trying to get community involvement to really get behind these kids, mobilize
00:47 them, galvanize them and get them excited about going to class again.
00:50 School officials say last school year 45% of their students were chronically absent,
00:55 meaning they missed eight or more days in a school year.
00:57 With 700 students enrolled, she says almost 350 students missed classes in 2022, citing
01:03 the return to normal life after the pandemic as one reason for the absences.
01:08 It was hard to get everybody back into the swing of coming to school and we have a lot
01:12 of trauma in the neighborhood.
01:14 We have a lot of families that are just struggling and so sometimes getting their student here
01:19 can be difficult.
01:20 Brittany Dirksy, the vice principal of McKinley, hopes this event keeps kids excited about
01:25 attending classes and show parents they're supported by the school.
01:28 Our parents do so much and it's hard sometimes to think you have to do everything and so
01:34 our hope is that we show them as the school we're here to support them, we're here to
01:37 help them work through any problems.
01:40 And Karina Diaz plans to volunteer at the event on Friday to show the kids they aren't
01:44 alone.
01:45 I think we have to be excited.
01:46 You know, it starts from the morning.
01:47 Letting she know some single moms may struggle to get their kids to class.
01:51 I do that with my own kids.
01:52 I make sure they wake up in a good mood, they're excited.
01:55 I always give them positive feedback on, hey, we're going to learn today, we're going to
01:59 have a great positive attitude, be there for your friends and just let them know that we're
02:03 here to help them out.
02:04 There will be gifts for the kids from Forge 103.9 and Danger Filled says they will host
02:09 events like this regularly to get kids to school.
02:11 I want to see a lot of kids with smiles and faces to say, wow, some really important people
02:16 care about us and they're really here for us alone.
02:20 And I hope that this will spark something in them to take their attendance seriously.
02:24 Danger Filled says they still need volunteers to help walk the kids to school.
02:28 For more information on how you can help, you can visit us online at turn to 23.com
02:32 in Bakersfield.
02:33 I'm Dominique Lavignier, 23 ABC News connecting you.
02:38 As local schools are working to increase attendance rates, we decided to take an in-depth look
02:42 into the statewide jump in students missing school after the pandemic.
02:46 According to a study conducted by Stanford University, the percentage of chronically
02:50 absent students increased from the pre-pandemic rate of 12.1% from 2018 through 2019 to 30%
02:59 from 2021 to 2022.
03:01 Nationally, the number of students who were chronically absent since the pandemic nearly
03:06 doubled to about 13.6 million, 1.8 million of those being in the Golden State.
03:13 Chronically absent means they missed about 10% or more of the school year, which adds
03:18 up to about one month of school.