Chronic or lengthy absences necessitate additional consideration and planning to help students who miss class regain lost ground, according to a K-12 Dive article.
A student’s family should also be involved. Knowing why a student is absent — such as illness or because of the death of a loved one — can help educators understand how much extra work they can handle to get back on track.
This information also allows educators to know if a student needs other additional supports from the school, such as assistance from a guidance counselor.
Involve other students in a class for support. If a student has missed a “prerequisite skill,” one teacher has her class spend a few minutes writing down key things they learned in the past week. She then gives these “cheat sheets” to the student who missed these lessons and encourages the student to use those materials as part of the process of reacclimating to being in class.
Including the student’s peers enables the entire class to feel they can lean on each other throughout their learning process.
“I’m sending the message that we’re all in this together,” the teacher says. “When somebody’s out, we’re all going to help each other catch up. I think that works very nicely.”