Graduation coaches help reduce dropout rate in Council Bluff

Getting to know each of those stories is one way the Council Bluffs Community School District is working to lower its dropout rates with students who are struggling to stay in school.

The decision to give graduation coaches a bigger role in the school district came as part of the district's strategic plan in the 2008-09 school year, said School Attendance Supervisor Kathy Hanafan.

A graduation coach's primary goal is to promote and improve school attendance to ultimately reduce the dropout rate and increase the graduation rate in schools — but it's really so much more than that, Hanafan said.

"Building the relationships with students is extremely important in engaging students in a school setting to help develop skills toward graduation and beyond," Thomas Jefferson High School graduation coach Silina Branson said.

Coaches spend a great deal of time getting to know each student to better understand their stories and by doing so are able to work on a case by case basis with each student to gain a better understanding on why a student isn't showing up to school.

Sometimes, it's a matter of transportation, work, mental health or substance abuse.

Once a student starts missing multiple, full school days, a graduation coach steps in to help the student and find out the best way to re-engage that student in school.

Whens students transition out of the school or a trimester changes and students get back on track they generally exit the program and a coach only checks in with the student from time to time.

At the elementary level, a graduation coach spends a lot of time getting to know the family, as opposed to high school where coaches work more with the students, she said.