These Native tribes are working with schools to boost attendance

WATONGA, Okla. (AP) — As the Watonga school system's Indian education director, Hollie Youngbear works to help Native American students succeed — a job that begins with getting them to school.

She makes sure students have clothes and school supplies. She connects them with federal and tribal resources. And when students don't show up to school, she and a colleague drive out and pick them up.

Nationwide, Native students miss school far more frequently than their peers, but not at Watonga High School. Youngbear and her colleagues work to connect with families in a way that acknowledges the history and needs of Native communities.

As she thumbed through binders in her office with records of every Native student in the school, Youngbear said a cycle of skipping school goes back to the abuse generations of Native students suffered at U.S. government boarding schools.

“If grandma didn’t go to school, and her grandma didn’t, and her mother didn’t, it can create a generational cycle,” said Youngbear, a member of the Arapaho tribe who taught the Cheyenne and Arapaho languages at the school for 25 years.

This story is part of a collaboration on chronic absenteeism among Native American students between The Associated Press and ICT, a news outlet that covers Indigenous issues.

Watonga schools collaborate with several Cheyenne and Arapaho programs that aim to lower Native student absenteeism. One helps students with school expenses and promotes conferences for tribal youth. Another holds monthly meetings with Watonga’s Native high school students during lunch hours to discourage underage drinking and drug use.

Oklahoma is home to 38 federally recognized tribes, many with their own education departments — and support from those tribes contributes to students' success. Of 34 states with data available for the 2022-2023 school year, Oklahoma was the only one where Native students missed school at lower rates than the state average, according to data collected by The Associated Press.

At Watonga High, fewer than 4% of Native students were chronically absent in 2022-23, in line with the school average, according to state data. Chronically absent students miss 10% or more of the school year, for both excused and unexcused reasons, which sets them behind in learning and heightens their chances of dropping out.

About 14% of students at the Watonga school on the Cheyenne-Arapaho reservation are Native American. With black-lettered Bible verses on the walls of its hallways, the high school resembles many others in rural Oklahoma. But student-made Native art decorates the classroom reserved for Eagle Academy, the school's alternative education program.

Students are assigned to the program when they struggle to keep up their grades or attendance, and most are Native American, classroom teacher Carrie Compton said. Students are rewarded for attendance with incentives like field trips.

Compton said she gets results. A Native boy who was absent 38 days one semester spent a short time in Eagle Academy during his second year of high school and went on to graduate last year, she said.

"He had perfect attendance for the first time ever, and it’s because he felt like he was getting something from school,” Compton said.

When students do not show up for school, Compton and Youngbear take turns visiting their homes.

“I can remember one year, I probably picked five kids up every morning because they didn’t have rides,” Compton said. “So at 7 o’clock in the morning, I just start my little route, and make my circle, and once they get into the habit of it, they would come to school.”

Around the country, Native students often have been enrolled in disproportionately large numbers in alternative education programs, which can worsen segregation. But the embrace of Native students by their Eagle Academy teacher sets a different tone from what some students experience elsewhere in the school.

Compton said a complaint she hears frequently from Native students in her room is, “The teachers just don’t like me.”

Bullying of Native students by non-Native students is also a problem, said Watonga senior Happy Belle Shortman, who is Kiowa, Cheyenne and Arapaho. She said Cheyenne students have been teased over aspects of their traditional ceremonies and powwow music.

“People here, they’re not very open, and they do have their opinions,” Shortman said. “People who are from a different culture, they don’t understand our culture and everything that we have to do, or that we have a different living than they do.”

Poverty might play a role in bullying as well, she said. “If you’re not in the latest trends, then you’re kind of just outcasted," she said.

Watonga staff credit the work building relationships with students for the low absenteeism rates, despite the challenges.

“Native students are never going to feel really welcomed unless the non-Native faculty go out of their way to make sure that those Native students feel welcomed," said Dallas Pettigrew, director of Oklahoma University’s Center for Tribal Social Work and a member of the Cherokee Nation.

Associated Press writer Sharon Lurye in New Orleans contributed to this report.

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Trophies are displayed in a case at Watonga High School where about 14% of students at the school on the Cheyenne-Arapaho reservation are Native American, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, in Watonga, Okla. (AP Photo/Nick Oxford)

Empty storefronts sit on Main Street on Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, in Watonga, Okla. (AP Photo/Nick Oxford)

A mural adorns the side of a downtown building on Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, in Watonga, Okla. (AP Photo/Nick Oxford)

Decor adorns the corner of Indian Education Director Hollie Youngbear's office at Watonga High School Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, in Watonga, Okla. (AP Photo/Nick Oxford)

About 14% of students at the Watonga High School on the Cheyenne-Arapaho reservation are Native American, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, in Watonga, Okla. (AP Photo/Nick Oxford)

Senior Happy Belle Shortman, who is who is Kiowa, Cheyenne and Arapaho, poses for a portrait at Watonga High School on Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, in Watonga, Okla. (AP Photo/Nick Oxford)

The football team practices on a new field at Watonga High School, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, where about 14% of students at the school on the Cheyenne-Arapaho reservation are Native American in Watonga, Okla. (AP Photo/Nick Oxford)

The cafeteria sits empty after lunch at Watonga High School on Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, in Watonga, Okla. (AP Photo/Nick Oxford)

Alternative Education Director Carrie Compton poses for portrait in her classroom at Watonga High School on Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, in Watonga, Okla. When students do not show up for school, Compton and Indian Education Director Hollie Youngbear take turns visiting their homes. (AP Photo/Nick Oxford)

Nationwide, Native students miss school far more frequently than their peers, but not at Watonga High School shown on Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, in Watonga, Okla. (AP Photo/Nick Oxford)

Indian Education Director Hollie Youngbear looks over a binder of info she compiles about her students in her office at Watonga High School on Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, in Watonga, Okla. Youngbear and her colleagues work to connect with families in a way that acknowledges the history and needs of Native communities. (AP Photo/Nick Oxford)

Indian Education Director Hollie Youngbear poses for a portrait at Watonga High School on Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, in Watonga, Okla. (AP Photo/Nick Oxford)

Indian Education Director Hollie Youngbear poses for a portrait at Watonga High School on Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, in Watonga, Okla. Youngbear and her colleagues work to connect with families in a way that acknowledges the history and needs of Native communities. (AP Photo/Nick Oxford)

Fewer grandparents were living with and taking care of grandchildren, there was a decline in young children going to preschool and more people stayed put in their homes in the first part of the 2020s compared with the last part of the 2010s, according to U.S. Census Bureau data released Thursday, reflecting some of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The latest figures from the most comprehensive survey of American life compares the years of 2014-2018 and 2019-2023, timeframes before the COVID-19 pandemic and during the virus' spread. The American Community Survey data show how lives were changed and family relationships altered by the pandemic and other occurrences like the opioid crisis.

The survey of 3.5 million households covers more than 40 topics, including ancestry, fertility, marital status, commutes, veterans status, disability and housing.

The decrease in grandparents' taking care of their grandchildren is most likely the result of a decline in opioid-related deaths during the more recent timeframe since substance abuse is a leading reason that grandparents find themselves raising grandchildren. A reduction in the number of incarcerated women also likely played a role, said Susan Kelley, a professor emerita of nursing at Georgia State University.

“It's very rarely for positive reasons that grandparents find themselves in this situation. Usually, it's a tragic situation in an adult child's life, either a death, incarceration or mental health issues which correlate with substance abuse," Kelly said. "Many grandparents thrive in that role, but there are still socioeconomic and emotional burdens on the grandparents."

A stronger economy in the most recent period also may be a reason that the number of grandparents living with their grandchildren declined from 7.2 million to 6.8 million by making it less likely that adult children with their own children were seeking housing help from their parents, she said.

The decline in the number of young children enrolled in preschool stemmed from an unwillingness to send young children to school and the closure of many schools at the height of the pandemic, according to the Census Bureau.

“These data show how the COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on patterns of early childhood education,” the bureau said in a separate report. "Future research will show if this was the start of a long-term trend or if enrollment will bounce back to prior levels."

Americans continued to get older, with the median age rising to 38.7 from 37.9 and the nation's share of senior citizens up from 16.8% from 15.2%. The share of households with a computer jumped to almost 95% from almost 89%, as did the share of households with a broadband connection to almost 90% from 80%.

Additionally, fewer people moved and more people stayed put in the most recent time period compared with the earlier one, in many cases because of rising home values and the limited availability of homes to buy.

Home values increased by 21.7% and the percentage of vacant homes dropped from 12.2% to 10.4%. The median home value jumped from $249,400 to $303,400 nationwide.

In some vacation communities popular with the wealthy, the bump was even more dramatic, such as in the county that is home to Aspen, Colorado, where it went from $758,800 to $1.1 million, and in the county which is home to Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts, where it jumped from $812,400 to $1.1 million.

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FILE - Gabriel Swift, 7, second left, wins a bike race against his brother, Isaiah Swift, 5, and his grandparents, Kim and Steve Swift, as they ride their bikes around the loop in the empty parking lot on Monday at One Faith Fellowship in the 1300 block of Tamarack in Owensboro, Ky., on April 1, 2024. (Alan Warren/The Messenger-Inquirer via AP)/The Messenger-Inquirer via AP, File)

FILE - Aaliyah Floyd, 10, right, selects school supplies with volunteer Cindy Blomquist, left, at the annual Back to School Distribution Day at The Pantry, Friday, July 29, 2022, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The Pantry works with grandparents who are the primary caregivers for their grandchildren, offering free backpacks, lunch boxes, school supplies and sneakers. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)

FILE - Third-grader Dallin Curry, 8, smiles as he talks with his grandmother, Mary Durr, Sept. 6, 2024, during a Grandparents Day celebration in the lunchroom at Burns Elementary School in Owensboro, Ky. (Alan Warren/The Messenger-Inquirer via AP, File)