In an effort to reduce chronic absenteeism, Limestone has added a family liaison to its team.
Kristian Pacey, as the liaison, works with students with many absences. Pacey spends her days checking in with students and connecting families to community resources. She describes her job as a mix of outreach, home visits, and case coordination.
LCHS principal Erin Vietti explained, “We have been trying to combat our attendance issues and improve overall attendance.”
In her role as family liaison, Pacey meets with students and connects with families to determine why students are unable to come to school.
Pacey says most of the work is one-on-one problem-solving. “Sometimes I do home visits if I’m not able to contact parents by phone,” Pacey explained. Those visits help staff understand what is really going on with a student and whether a family needs additional support.
Pacey hopes to address the reasons for these continuous absences, and has already been able to identify some notable main causes like sickness, issues with transportation, or simply not even having the desire or motivation to get out of bed in the mornings.
Vietti also explained that additional attendance issues could involve a student helping parents out by working or babysitting.
Pacey determines what barrier is preventing a student from coming to school, and then helps remove it so that the student’s attendance improves. Once Pacey has determined a problem, Limestone can collaborate with outside community services like food banks if a student is in need.
Vietti claims that the students whom Pacey has served have had an improvement in their attendance. “Seeing students after she has started to develop relationships with families, there has been improvement in specific students’ attendance,” said Vietti.
Before working at LCHS, she was a secretary at Peoria Regional Learning Center, where she gained experience working with high school students. She works through Family Core.
