Angelosante talks to BDN about chronic absenteeism
Courtney Angelosante, coordinator of the Maine Positive Behavioral Supports and Interventions initiative at the University of Maine College of Education and Human Development, was interviewed by the Bangor Daily News for an article about how K-12 schools are addressing chronic absenteeism. Angelosante noted that students were required to be at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, causing them to miss at least a year of socialization critical to their development. “We lost a year, and that’s showing up clearly in terms of how they resolve conflict, how they engage with each other,” Angelosante said. “Kids who were already at risk went over a year without intervention. I think our kids coming into school had no early intervention, no reciprocal play or parallel play, no exposure to other kids. This has created a different dynamic in schools.”