Schools Add Laundromats to Battle Student Absenteeism
August 17, 2018
By: Jillian Harding
Source: CBS News
At schools around the country, officials are tackling student absenteeism by focusing on a non-educational problem: a lack of access to laundry facilities.
At West Side High School in Newark, New Jersey Principal Akbar Cook says a lack of clean clothing was a big reason 85 percent of students at the school were absent between three to five days a month.
“They were being bullied and it wasn’t just in the building, it was on Snapchat — I’m sitting behind you and take a picture of your collar ‘look at this dirty guy,'” Cook told WCBS reporter Lisa Rozner. “So you go home and you couldn’t even escape it if you were on social media.”