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
- Make school attendance a priority.
- Set a time for your student to go to bed, wake up, have a healthy breakfast and get to school on time.
- When your student is absent, upload a note into your FOCUS parent portal or send a note or an email to your school attendance clerk.
- Visit your student’s school and get involved and volunteer.
- Get to know the principal, teachers, attendance clerks and your student’s friends.
- Attend parent conferences, meet the teacher night and open house.
- Understand the difference between an excused and unexcused absences.
- Contact your student’s teachers and inquire about the ABC’s of school: Attendance, Behavior and Classes.
- Ensure students have the supplies, uniforms and equipment needed for the school day.
All of these anti-truancy parent tips can help your child have a positive school attendance year.
Missing a day of school here and there may not seem like much, but absences add up.
When a student misses two days each month, they will miss 20 days a year. That means the student missed 30 hours of math instruction over the year; 60 hours of reading and writing; and may miss up to a full year worth of class time over the course of a K-12 academic career. When a student misses four days each month, they will miss 40 days a year. That means the student missed 60 hours of math instruction over the year; 120 hours of reading and writing; and may miss up to two full years worth of class time by graduation.
