District To Fight Teacher Absenteeism

WASHINGTON, DC (WUSA) -- Some teachers in DC public schools may be providing lessons in hard work and reliability that parents may not want their children to be learning. They are phoning in sick, and doing so often.

Some teachers have phoned in sick 90 days a year, according the DC Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee. She also says some schools have become accustomed to dealing with an average of 15 absent teachers almost every day of the school year. The remarks were confirmed to 9NEWS NOW by a school district spokeswoman.

"Well, what I will say is that the two things that you listed are absolutely unacceptable, " Mayor Adrian Fenty told 9NEWS NOW on Monday.

"The next steps are exactly what the chancellor has proposed: to begin the process of systematically and managerially holding people accountable from the top. And our central administration bill will be voted on tomorrow (a bill that allows Rhee to more easily fire school staff) and we look forward to that passing the Council of the District of Columbia, and we'll immediately start holding people accountable with that Act. It's going to be a long process, but beginning now we are sending a signal to people that hard work is not only appreciated but it will be rewarded. But those who are not willing to work hard on behalf of our children, this may not be the best place for you," Fenty said.

The president of the Washington Teachers Union, George Parker, is skeptical about those claims of teachers phoning in sick 90 days a year.

"Teacher absenteeism is not the reason Washington, DC, public schools have failed. In any school where we have a high teacher absenteeism rate, I think it would be based on, number one, low teacher morale, inadequate support and resources for our teachers, ineffective security and discipline where our teachers feel threatened, and most of all where we have poor leadership in the schools," Parker told 9NEWS NOW.

"One of the things we have to be very careful about and that is blaming the teacher for everything that has occurred in DC public schools, when the reality is that we have not had the type of support from central administration in the past that is needed. We don't have any real discipline plan in our schools so that teachers feel threatened daily in the classroom, and we don't have good school leadership," Parker said. WUSA9