February 9, 2011: Detroit Public Schools deny students admission on Count Day

February 9, 2011: Detroit Public Schools deny students admission on Count Day

Detroit Public Schools is facing a $363 million deficit and needs every dollar it can get to maintain its financial solvency. The school district has suffered continual declining enrollment over the past 10 years. In 2001, there were over 159,000 students enrolled in the Detroit Public Schools system. The student enrollment for the fall count day on September 30, 2010 was 77, 314 students down almost 10,000 students from the 2009-2010 annual count of 83,777 students. School districts receive over $7,000 annually for each student in attendance at their schools, with 75% of funding determined from the fall count day and 25% funding determined from the winter count day. Therefore, for every student that is denied admission on count day the school district loses over $1,700 in funding.

“Why is a school district with such a huge deficit turning students away on count day?” Students are being denied admission to the schools because they are not adhering to the dress code policy. In previous years, count day was a special day for students with “free dress”, pizza and ice cream parties, celebrity visits, and other incentives developed to increase attendance for that day which is used to determine the amount of funding that school systems will receive. However, this year, some schools are being very strict with the dress code policy and actually turning students away at the door for not being in the school uniform even though the school has the potential to lose the over $1,700 for the students not being in attendance for the day. Other schools are requiring students to pay monies for free dress day, with events such as “pajama day”.

For cash strapped school districts, what is more important, the dress code policy or funding? From a financial perspective, the answer would seem simple, funding is more important. Yet, schools are denying the students admission because they are not adhering to the dress code policy. As parents and a community we need to question DPS as to how the school district can continue to function with such a high deficit and such little concern for the funding stream needed to maintain the school district. The dress code policy should never take precedence over the need for funding. This indicates that DPS is focusing on the wrong areas when it pertains to a children’s education and ensuring that the school system is providing a quality education. DPS should be reminded that without funding, the school district will have to close more schools and reduce it workforce, which has nothing to do with the school dress code policy. It should be noted that while count day is the official day for determining school funding, schools do have 30 days to account for a student with an authorized excused absence and 10 days to account for a student with an unexcused absence. However, if a student is out of the dress code on count day, why subject the school or the student to the elongated process when the school needs to funding.

For every problem, there needs to be a solution presented. If the dress code policy can potentially cause DPS to lose funding because students are being denied admission then there is a problem with the policy. It can only be suggested that DPS re-evaluate the dress code policy to determine if this is one of the reasons schools are suffering from declining enrollment each year by sending out surveys and calling drop outs to find out why they are not returning to DPS. Because in some cases, when a student is denied admission, they may not return in a timely manner and eventually drop out. At the end of count day, DPS needs all the funding it can get and denying students admission because they are not adhering to the dress code should not be an option.

Mari Hadley is a graduate of Detroit College of Business with a BBA and MBA in Business Administration. She facilitates courses for the University of Phoenix, Axia College of the University of Phoenix, and Capella University in both the undergraduate and graduate departments. Mari is the Chief Executive Officer for her consulting companies, MDZ Hadley Enterprises and Business and Education Research and Training Organization (BERTO), specializing in Education/Financial Aid, Strategic Management, and Organizational Development Consulting. She is pursuing a PhD. in Higher Education at Walden University. Mari is the author of Michael Jackson Master of Illusion.