Attendance Matters
Did you know that missing just 10 percent of the school year in the early grades can leave many students struggling throughout elementary school? Or that by sixth grade, missing only that much school is strongly linked to course failure and even eventually dropping out of high school? That’s just 18 days of the school year—or two to three days per month. Every school day counts, and everyone can make a difference: educators, after school programs, mayors, businesses, parents… really, everyone!
Join in this September for the launch of the first-ever Attendance Awareness Month. Rally your community around the importance of attendance and its role in academic achievement. Click here to learn more about getting involved in Attendance Awareness Month and to download the Count Us In! toolkit so that you can explore how YOU can catalyze change by getting involved in this important effort.
The Attendance Awareness Campaign is organized by five convening partners: America’s Promise Alliance, Attendance Works, The Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, Civic Enterprises and Points of Light, and is supported by a growing list of organizations.
The links below provide insight into how much attendance affects student performance.
The Importance of Being In School: A Report on Absenteeism in the Nation’s Public Schools
Attendance Counts: Just one day. That’s what we think when we skip school or pull our child out. It can’t really matter that much. But add up those one days and you get months of missed learning time. Select the link below for access to a tool that allows you to chart the effect of missing school.
A must see video “Middle School Moment”
The make-or-break moment for high school dropouts may actually occur in middle school.
