Callling all DREs and teachers - attendance ideas

[Corki]

As we get ready to start a new school year for religious ed, I want to ask all you experts how your religious education programs handle attendance. We have a horrible attendance rate in our classes. Last year, I only had a couple students who ever came on any two consecutive weeks. This makes it very hard to have any consistency or to build one lesson on the previous ones.

These kids can’t get themselves to class, the parents must bring them, so incentives aimed at the students themselves don’t seem to work well. Of course there are some kids who don’t really need to be there, mostly ones getting good religious ed as part of a homeschool curriculum but those aren’t the ones missing the most classes.

So what does everyone do in your programs? Do you have attendance requirements to advance to the next level? Do you have attendance requirements for Sacrament years? Or do you treat it all as sowing some seeds, even a few, that hopefully will get some water later?

Thanks in advance for all your ideas.

 

[EasterJoy]

We had the same problem.

My sense is this: if you find an answer, tell your pastor, so he can use it to get them there every Sunday morning, too.

 

[Corki]

We had the same problem.

My sense is this: if you find an answer, tell your pastor, so he can use it to get them there every Sunday morning, too.

LOL, our pastor does a great job of encouraging regular CCE attendance. He even mentions it in homilies. But sadly only about 25% (generously) of our students’ families are atteding Mass.

 

[puzzleannie]

So what does everyone do in your programs? Do you have attendance requirements to advance to the next level? Do you have attendance requirements for Sacrament years? Or do you treat it all as sowing some seeds, even a few, that hopefully will get some water later?

Thanks in advance for all your ideas.

all I can tell you is what works (kind of) for us. We are no longer allowed to have an attendance rule as in “you missed 3 classes you cannot make first communion”. Our policy, and parents are informed verbally several times, and in writing, is that if you miss 3 consecutive classes w/o a phone call to the office, we assume you have dropped out. We do try to all and find out what is happening but that is not always possible. The most common reason is the child has failed the Taks (state achievement tests) and must attend tutoring that interferes w/CCD so we take that into account in planning our program, and schedule first confession and communion before “Saturday school” begins, so that they get most of the preparation they need. We also have offered for the last 3 years, and it is very successful, a summer make-up class after one Mass on Sunday so no child has to lose a whole year. We also have 3 intensive make-up sessions on Saturdays in May after CCD is over so children who should have made 1st communion except they or their parents missed some classes, can catch up. Not ideal but meets the requirements. If a child missed several weeks and comes back we let him make up the work over a holiday or summer so he remains with his class.

Any way the standard policy is that a missed class is made up when the child brings the work home and completes it, and it is returned to the catechist, signed by the parent. The catechist then puts a note on the attendance roster “M” showing the make-up, and I “count” it for that class. We also send the book home if a child is going to be out for illness, surgery or a longer absence, and accept all the work that is completed. Of course we also support regular home-schoolers, who need only the standard parent meetings and retreat for each sacrament.

That being said we had out about 50 perfect attendance certificates each year (2 or fewer excused absences).

between the 3 parishes in town families have a choice of Saturday, Sunday or after school CCD sessions so that is usually not a reasonable excuse, but the other parishes do not accept students mid-year, whereas we have rolling admission. that drives the catechists nuts, but I try to put new students in the Sunday class and mainstream them into the proper Saturday class in September.