In College Park, showing up to class could mean lower utility bills

Fulton officials estimate four College Park schools lost a combined 12.7 teaching positions last year because students didn’t attend school during the headcount period. They said the loss was equivalent to $1.5 million in school funding.

“I was surprised that was going on,” College Park City Councilman Joe Carn said about children not coming to school.

Carn said the reasons for those initial school absences are often socioeconomic.

“We’ve got a lot of single-parent families (in College Park),” he said. “They may be working double shifts, and … they may have issues with finding birth certificates or getting proper documentation, immunization shots, so on and so forth, which makes (enrolling) kind of difficult.”

Carn started working on a campaign last spring to make sure students show up for the first week of school. So offering an incentive during one of the hottest months of the year, when utility bills are high, seemed like a good idea. Carn says he’s distributed yard signs and flyers detailing the promotion. Information is also included in residents’ utility bills.

“Hopefully it’s successful, and we can generate some better metrics with school attendance for the first week of school,” Carn said.

Fulton County Schools Superintendent Mike Looney supports the incentive but said money isn’t the only problem created by absences during the first few weeks of school.

“It’s a lot less about funding and more about creating stability in the classroom,” Looney told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

For example, Looney said, if 15 kindergarten students show up for a class where 20 were expected, the district may not be able to afford to keep a class that small. The students could be moved into other classrooms to balance the numbers.

“The longer that takes, the more upsetting it gets to the academic culture and social culture for students because students bond with their teachers and almost immediately start making friends,” Looney said.

Fulton, like many Georgia school districts, is also trying to crack down on chronic absenteeism. Students who miss 10% or more of the school year are considered chronically absent. Rates have spiked since the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, 18.7% of Fulton County students were chronically absent during the 2024-25 school year, compared to 8.6% during the 2019-20 school year. Georgia’s chronic absenteeism rate for 2024-25 was 19.5%.

For its part, the Henry County school district sent a letter to families informing them that students who don’t attend school at all during the first three days will have to reenroll and may lose their class schedule. Henry’s school year starts Thursday.

While some parents expressed surprise on social media, Henry County Superintendent John Pace said the procedure isn’t new. He emphasized that students won’t be penalized for excused absences.

“If they come (to school) the first day and all of a sudden get sick the second day, they’re fine,” Pace said in a phone interview. “If they’re sick the first two days and come the third day, they’re fine.”

Pace said he wasn’t thinking about the financial impact when he wrote the letter, but low attendance during the first few days of school could affect resources.

“It may make us say, ‘Oh, wow, maybe they’re not coming,’ and then ... it impacts staffing allocations, so we have to make decisions.”