Texas Border Business
Mission, Texas – After spending a couple of weeks working the phones and following a paperwork trail, a group of about 40 Mission Consolidated Independent School District (CISD) staff members has begun to fan out across the district looking for students who were expected to enroll this school year, but have not yet show up at a district school. The process begins digging through the paperwork and lists to clean up student rosters. Once that is done, then the phone calls begin as well as home and neighborhood visits to try and locate the students.
By the end of September, the district is required to account for these students with the Texas Education Agency (TEA). “This goes way beyond simply trying to meet reporting requirements,” explained Dr. Carol G. Perez, Mission CISD superintendent. “This is an important part of trying to keep students from falling through the cracks and helping them prepare for their futures.”
Dr. Perez explained that in some cases, students have enrolled in other schools. In other cases, there may be other issues that have kept them from returning to school. In those cases, the recovery teams try to identify those needs or issues in order to help them get past those issues and get the added assistance, if needed. “This also gives us an opportunity to make sure the students and parents know about the programs that Mission CISD has that are available to them, especially those who need a more non-traditional school setting,” Dr. Perez said.
District officials began with a list of over 500 and have already whittled that down to 173. The ultimate goal is to make sure all individuals are enrolled to complete their requirements for graduation.
Pictured are Family and Community Engagement liaisons, Diana Mangrum and Shary Treviño as they reviewed paperwork while working in a Mission neighborhood.
 staff members has begun to fan out across the district looking for students who were expected to enroll this school year, but have not yet show up at a district school.){kind=link}