Success Stories
Public School System Sees Big Gains in Attendance
North Platte, Nebraska, is a blue collar, hard-working community. The schools had long struggled with chronic absenteeism, disruptive classroom behaviors and disengaged students and parents. When absenteeism hit an all-time high, the North Platte Public Schools began working with Boys Town to implement the Lift program that uses proven tools and strategies to teach social skills, that can be used to manage behaviors and build relationships. Since working with Boys Town’s Lift program, the district has experienced big gains in attendance numbers by working directly with staff, students and parents, and a significant reduction in school suspensions and office referrals. “I can’t think of a better intervention than Boys Town that we could put into place to positively work with all aspects of a child’s life,” said Brandy Buscher, Director of Student Services.
North Platte is a blue-collar community, hardworking, just like a lot of communities. I think we struggle. We have a lot of parents who maybe cannot get access to the services they need. And then that seems to trickle down with our students who are coming to school. And sometimes we have kids that are really struggling.
There are some students that have behavioral issues, some struggle socially, emotionally. Absenteeism is a huge issue here.
The chronic absenteeism here is at an all-time high for North Platte, and that is why we're bringing in the Lift Initiative.
Lift with Boys Town is a multi-tiered, multi-component prevention intervention system. We really provide a menu of services and programs to help support schools, students, and families and communities wherever their needs are.
Now you get to go follow the instruction, right?
Another large component is our school support specialist that works directly with students that need some skills to be successful in the classroom.
One of the things that we try to do with social skills is that repetition and teaching it like following instructions, appropriate voice tone, talking with the teacher, many different things that they're learning from these social skills. There we go. For trying to curb chronic absenteeism. The biggest one is reaching out to the family and then further their educational success. The second we can get the family on the same page as the school, the second we can get the kid taken care of and further their educational success.
Last year we had 20 kids that had gone over 20 days, which means they're chronically absent. This year we only have six, so we're seeing some really big gains in attendance. Boys Town is working with the staff; they're working directly with a student and then they can go above and beyond and work with the parents. I can't think of a better intervention that we could put in place other than Boys Town to work with all of the aspects of a child's life.
I've seen such forward progress with some of these kids. Where they are more motivated, they are focused on their tasks, they want to do well in school. And there is more support in the family dynamic as well for them to be successful.
It creates a better climate within the classroom, better engagement for the other students, less disruptive behaviors.
Less suspensions, less getting sent to the office, out-of-school suspensions.
So our suspension rate has lowered by 46%. And a lot of that has to do with the continuity that we have from Lift with Boys Town where we have it in the homes, as well as in the classroom, as well as administration.
When it comes to their life, their mental health, and your family, you know, Boys Town is there for us. I wish that it is in all schools.
I hope that North Platte School District is able to sustain and use the Boys Town model. I think it'll be good for generations to come.
I think it is an amazing program. It's kind of that awe moment when you can get parents to work together with your teachers and you're all on the same page.
It really does make my heart happy to see that Boys Town in the model and what I'm doing here has helped.
I wish we had a Boys Town staff in all of our schools. It's been a huge success for North Platte public schools.
