​Overview of School Years 2021-2023

The past two school years have seen many highlights and changes within both the District and OSSA, including the following:

• Governor Tom Wolf appointed Carol Kuntz as the new advocate for the OSSA on April 9, 2022.  Ms. Kuntz was working as interim advocate and former manager of School Safety prior to her appointment to the full-time role as advocate.
• Superintendent William Hite, Jr., Ed.D, left the District in June 2022 after nearly 10 years in office.  Dr. Tony B. Watlington Sr. was appointed superintendent and was sworn in on June 16, 2022.
• During the 2022-23 school year, the District's Victims Assistance Specialist moved into the OSSA to work together to support students, families and school staff. The District's Office of School Safety provides for the Victim Assistance Specialist, Gina Crayton, to support children and families to ensure they have a consistent and comprehensive network of support and services when victimized by school-related crime. It is the first time that both the state and the District have jointly supported victim advocacy efforts.
• During the 2022-23 school year, PCCD established a new Victims Compensation Assistance Program (VCAP) staff person to work out of Philadelphia.  VCAP helps victims and their families through the emotional and physical aftermath of a crime by easing the financial impact placed upon them by the crime. 
• OSSA issued a Request for Proposal to solicit for a victim service program to provide additional Victim Advocacy Assistance, specifically for the students and staff of the School District of Philadelphia.  The proposal provides for a Philadelphia community-based organization/agency to assist in victim's advocacy through the OSSA.
• OSSA continued to work closely with Philadelphia Police Department's Community Resource and Victims Advocacy Officers to provide referrals for students and families.  Police contact the OSSA when students are victimized and in need of assistance.  Staff members contact parents/caregivers to determine and mitigate needs.

Student Population Overview

The 2021-2022 school year brought students back to school on a full-time basis following the tumultuous COVID-pandemic period.  In March of 2022, the District's Office of Research and Evaluation completed an analysis of enrollment trends which portrayed a decrease in the overall student enrollment in district schools and an increase in cyber charter schools. There were 5,424 students enrolled in cyber charter school in the 2017-2018 school year, which steadily increased to 13,405 students in 2022-2023.  Brick and mortar charter schools had a 5% increase in enrollment between 2017 and 2021, but in the 2021-2022 school year there was a 2% decrease in enrollment. The 2022-2023 school year saw a simliar trend with enrollment continuing to drop.

A brief overview of the changes in District enrollment is listed in the chart below.  Please click on the following link to view the full enrollment report (see School District of Philadelphia Enrollment).

Student enrollment was not the only statistic to decrease over the course of the 5-year period. Just as student attendance has experienced a downward trend, habitual truancy has also been creeping up. According to PDE's Basic Educational Circular,  Compulsory School Attendance, Unlawful Absences, and School Attendance Improvement Conferences, "a child is ‘truant’ if the child is subject to compulsory school laws and has incurred three or more school days of unexcused absences during the current school year. A child is 'habitually truant' if the child is subject to compulsory school laws and has incurred six or more school days of unexcused absences during the current school year." 

In the 2021-2022 school year, the District reported a rate of 57.36% habitual truancy in their School Safety Report to the PA Department of Education. 

Speaking specifically of student attendance as it relates to victims of violence within the District, the OSSA worked with approximately 250 students who were victims of violence over the 2021-22 school year. Most of the students returned to school without any extenuating issues; however, several parents/caregivers did not feel comfortable returning their children to schools due to safety concerns. They made a conscientious decision to have their child risk being truant rather than return them to the same school. Many waited for transfers to another school, or avoided 'brick and mortar' schools altogether and sent their children to cyber school. Some decided to homeschool their children or just keep them at home, not concerned with their return to school. The OSSA worked with the Family and Community Engagement Office (FACE), the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities, the individual schools' administrators and counselors, and the Office of Student Enrollment and Placement in liaising with the parents/caregivers to provide education for their children. 

To go to the next section, Incident Reporting, click on Incident-Reporting.aspx.