School Enrollment Up By 35 Students

Enrollment in the DeKalb County School System was up by 35 students as of Tuesday, August 9 compared to August 8, 2015.
According to Attendance Supervisor Joey Reeder, a total of 3,050 students are enrolled compared to 3,015 last year. But Reeder said the numbers change often especially this early in the school year. “We’re up by a few but you have to realize that nothing is very firm at this point. The numbers change. We’ve got kids still coming in to register and we have students who have moved away and their schools (elsewhere) are starting so we’re beginning to get some records request from those schools. Once we get those (records requests) they (students) go off our rolls. It’s probably going to be after Labor Day before we get good firm numbers as to how many students we have but as of now we’re up by 35 students and that’s not a big increase but its 35 students we have to place somewhere,” Reeder told WJLE Tuesday.
As of Tuesday, enrollment at each school was as follows compared to last year:
DCHS: 864 (down by 3 students)
DeKalb Middle School: 539 (up by 3 students)
Northside Elementary: 654 (down by 4 students)
Smithville Elementary: 580 (up by 11 students)
DeKalb West School: 404 (up by 22 students)
Enrollment at DCHS breaks down as follows:
9th grade: 217 students
10th grade: 232 students
11th grade: 210 students
12th grade: 205 students
Enrollment District-Wide by grade level is as follows:
Kindergarten: 227 (SES & DWS combined)
1st grade: 235 (SES & DWS)
2nd grade: 223 (SES, Northside, & DWS)
3rd grade: 239 (Northside & DWS)
4th grade: 269 (Northside & DWS)
5th grade: 221 (Northside & DWS)
6th grade: 219 (DMS & DWS)
7th grade: 222 (DMS & DWS)
8th grade: 224 (DMS & DWS)
Reeder urges parents to make sure their children attend school on time every day classes are in session. “In the past we’ve concentrated on just getting students to school and not missing for unexcused days. But now there’s a new term “Chronic Absenteeism” which is defined as missing 10% of the school year for any reason. Of course, if your child is sick we don’t want them at school and as long as the absences are excused there is not a lot we can do about it but we ask parents to try and get your child to school every day possible because if a student misses 18 days of school then that is defined as “Chronic Absenteeism” and that is something we want to avoid,” he said.
Under state law, if a student misses as few as five days of school “unexcused” he or she is considered “truant”. “We won’t take you to juvenile court for five days missed but we will send a letter to the parents to arrange a meeting with them to see what can be done to improve their child’s attendance,” said Reeder.
Tardies are also a concern, especially early in the morning. “We don’t have a lot of tardies during the day. Its like during first block in the morning when they are getting there a few minutes late. We ask parents bringing their children to school to please arrive on time by 7:45 a.m. because three tardies can equal one unexcused absence,” said Reeder“
Meanwhile, Reeder urges parents who are home schooling their children to contact the school system to let them know.”I wish you would come by and register with us. It helps us to know where they (students) are and what they are doing. Some people withdraw their kids from the school system to home school and we never hear from them again in the following years. Legally, parents are suppose to register but there is really not a penalty if they don’t. It just helps us keep up with where the students are at. Registering is not a big deal. It doesn’t take but five minutes and it would help us out some,” said Reeder.