School Attendance

Consistent school attendance is very important and promotes life-long academic and social success! Of course, there are times when absences are unavoidable due to health problems or other circumstances, however, chronic absenteeism can have a drastic impact on your child’s education. Children chronically absent in kindergarten and first grade are much less likely to learn to read by the end of third grade. By sixth grade, chronic absence is a proven early warning sign of drop-out.  By ninth grade, good attendance can predict graduation and, even better than eight-grade test scores.  Going to school regularly matters!

If your child is having a difficult time maintaining regular attendance, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me.  Feel free to call me at (708) 450-2023, send me an email ([email protected]), or send a note with your student so we can set up a meeting to work together to develop a plan of success.  I am here to work with you and your student and will do what I can to promote consistent school attendance!

10 Facts About School Attendance

1. Absenteeism in the first month of school can predict poor attendance throughout the school year. Half the students who miss 2-4 days in September go on to miss nearly a month of school.
2. Over 8 million U.S. students miss nearly a month of school each year.
3. Absenteeism and its ill effects start early. One in 10 kindergarten and first grade students are chronically absent.
4. Poor attendance can influence whether children read proficiently by the end of third grade or be held back.
5. By 6th grade, chronic absence becomes a leading indicator that a student will drop out of high school.
6. Research shows that missing 10 percent of the school, or about 18 days in most school districts, negatively affects a student’s academic performance. That’s just two days a month and that’s known as chronic absence.
7. Students who live in communities with high levels of poverty are four times more likely to be chronically absent than others often for reasons beyond their control, such as unstable housing, unreliable transportation and a lack of access to health care.
8. When students improve their attendance rates, they improve their academic prospects and chances for graduating.
9. Attendance improves when schools engage students and parents in positive ways and when schools provide mentors for chronically absent students.
10. st school districts and states don’t look at all the right data to improve school attendance. They track how many students show up every day and how many are skipping school without an excuse, but not how many are missing so many days in excused and unexcused absence that they are headed off track academically.

For more information about school attendance, please visit: https://www.attendanceworks.org/.