This September marks the 14th annual Attendance Awareness Month, an opportunity to engage families, schools and community organizations early in the school year about the importance of regular attendance and its role in the development of the whole child: social, emotional and academic.
Nearly one in four students nationwide (versus one in six pre-pandemic) are chronically absent today. In addition, nearly half (46%) of all schools still have high (20-29%) or extreme (30%+) rates of chronic absence. When such high percentages of students in a school are chronically absent, the learning experience of all students is affected. This is especially true for those students living in poverty who face the greatest barriers to getting to school and have the fewest resources to make up for lost learning opportunities at school. There are many reasons for student absences. While physical health challenges such as asthma or unmet oral health needs have been among the most common contributors to chronic absence, student anxiety is now a top concern.
While every school day counts, the start of each school year presents an opportunity to lift up an urgent issue: Once children become chronically absent, they can be headed off-track for college and career.
Research shows that children who are chronically absent in kindergarten and first grade are much less likely to read proficiently by the end of third grade. By middle and high school, chronic absence is a proven early warning sign that a student will drop out. Equally important, students with chronic absence also miss out on opportunities to develop socially and gain skills in problem-solving and self-regulation, all of which are needed to grow, learn and succeed in a job.
The impact of so many students missing so much school has made learning more challenging, not just for the students who are chronically absent, but also for those who attend regularly. The churn from students moving in and out of the classroom makes it harder for teachers to teach and establish classroom norms while students must wait for their absent peers to catch up.
That’s why we are a proud corporate sponsor of the Attendance Awareness Campaign which provides free webinars and tools for your school to use to:
- Create a welcoming, safe and healthy environment that engages students and families and motivates them to attend. Share handouts with information about chronic absence and tips for getting all students to school.
- Build trusting relationships that can lead to addressing the challenges of getting to school. Parent Teacher Home Visits offers resources for educators to develop home visits that build meaningful partnerships between families and schools.
- Monitor chronic absence data to identify which and how many students have so many absences they require some form of early intervention. Attendance Works offers free, data tools designed specifically for schools and school districts to track chronic absence.
The Attendance Awareness Month campaign is spearheaded by Attendance Works along with 10 national nonprofit organizations. To learn more about how chronic absence impacts student achievement, find strategies and downloadable resources or how you can launch your own campaign visit Attendance Works www.attendanceworks.org.
