Academic growth, better test scores, and higher graduation rates all hinge on attendance, especially in the early grades. There is a direct correlation between attendance and graduation. By freshman year, attendance is a better predictor of graduation rates than eighth-grade test scores. Students who miss between five and nine days a semester are 25% less likely to graduate in four years.
Possible Strategies to Help Your Child Reach Attendance Goals
- Talk to your child about how going to school every day will help them do well in school and achieve their hopes and dreams.
- Keep an attendance chart at home to track absences.
- At the end of the week, recognize your child for attending school every day with a visit to the park, a new book, a break from doing chores, or a special treat, etc.
- Make sure your child is in bed by a designated time that fits your schedule and ready to rise daily at a specific time that works for you all.
- Find a relative, friend, or neighbor who can take you child to or from school when you cannot.
- Plan medical and dental appointments for weekdays after school when possible.
- When it is not possible to schedule appointments outside of the school day, please please remember that attendance is recorded for state of Texas purposes at 9:00 a.m. at elementary; 10:15 a.m. at junior high and 1:35 p.m. at high school.
- When possible, please strongly consider scheduling appointments or other conflicts around these times.
- Click here for a list of the dates students will be taking state tests, and please consider scheduling appointments outside these days.
- Please remember to provide the campus attendance specialist with a note from the medical appointment, so it will entered into the system as an excused absence.
- Send the note with the days the child was absent, the reason for the absence, and sign the note via FOCUS or by email or in person within three days of the absence.
- If your child has a slight stomachache, headache, or allergies, and doesn’t have a contagious illness, do send the child to school.
- If your child is sick, please keep them home.
- Seek a medical opinion from a health care provider if your child complains regularly about aches or pains.
- If your child cannot avoid missing school, please contact the teacher for tips and resources to keep the child’s learning on track with peers.
All the items listed above can help your child to have a positive school attendance year. #RISDBelieves #RISDWeAreOne
