Attendance Information

Hurricane Attendance Information

Attendance Matters!

Our goal this year is to ensure that every student attends school regularly!

Showing up for school has a huge impact on a student’s academic success starting in kindergarten and continuing through high school. Even as children grow older and more independent, families play a key role in making sure students get to school safely every day and understand why attendance is so important for success in school and in life.

Here are a few practical tips to help support regular attendance:

• Make sure your children keep a regular bedtime and establish a morning routine.
• Lay out clothes and pack backpacks the night before.
• Ensure your children go to school every day unless they are truly sick
• Avoid scheduling vacations or doctor’s appointments when school is in session.
• Talk to teachers and counselors for advice if your children feel anxious about going to school.
• Develop back up plans for getting to school if something comes up. Call on a family member, neighbor, or another parent to take your child to school.

In an effort to encourage regular student attendance, we have started an incentive this year we call Perfect Storm. Each month we will be recognizing and rewarding students with perfect attendance, which included no absences, tardies or early absences. Help us make your student successful in school!

Attendance

In a recent student survey, we polled all students on their attendance habits. They were asked to check the top three reasons that they are tardy to school, absent or go home early. Here are the results:

Facts about absenteeism

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. An estimated 5 million to 7.5 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. Poor attendance can influence whether children read proficiently by the end of third grade or be held back.
4. By 6th grade, chronic absence becomes a leading indicator that a student will drop out of high school.
5. 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
6. The academic impact of missing that much school is the same whether the absences are excused or unexcused. Suspensions also add to lost time in the classroom.
7.  Low-income students 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.