Taking Action on Attendance: How Parents Can Make a Difference at Home Ask for a show of hands — how many of you think it’s important for your children to have good attendance? Date

What is Chronic Absence? Chronic Absence is missing 10% or more of the school year for any reason – this includes excused and unexcused absences. Excused Absences Unexcused Absences Chronic Absence What is Chronic absence? It’s missing 10% or more of the school year for any reason. Unlike truancy, which is when a student has unexcused absences, chronic absence looks at excused absences too.

Chronic Absence: A Hidden National Crisis Nationwide, as many as 7.5 million students miss nearly a month of school every year. That’s 135 million days of lost time in the classroom. In some cities, as many as one in four students are missing that much school. Chronic absenteeism is a red alert that students are headed for academic trouble and eventually for dropping out of high school.  Poor attendance isn’t just a problem in high school. It can start as early as pre-kindergarten. Why should you care about chronic absence? You can insert local data if you have it – bullet point #3: “Last year in [our district], one out of X students was chronically absent.”

Absences Add Up Chronic Absence = 18 days of absence = 2 days a month Why We May Not Notice Chronic Absence It’s easy not to notice when your child may be missing too much school. 10% of a school year is about 18 days of absence. That sounds like a lot but when you break it down, that’s just two days a month. Most parents don’t get too stressed out if their child misses two days of class in a month. But when it happens month after month, it becomes a problem. Why? Absences Add Up Chronic Absence = 18 days of absence = 2 days a month

If You’re Not in School, You Can’t Benefit From What Is Taught It doesn’t matter if you know about it and gave permission for your child to stay home. It doesn’t matter if your child’s absence is excused. It doesn’t matter if your child has a doctor’s note. He still missed the opportunity to benefit from what is taught.

Students Chronically Absent in Kindergarten & 1st Grade Much Less Likely to Read Proficiently in 3rd Grade 64% Do you agree with the statement: Good attendance is critical in high school but it matters less in elementary school. (Ask people to raise hands if they agree.) Say: A lot of times, we think it’s ok to miss a lot of days in elementary school. But here’s what we’ve learned from research: Missing 18 days or more in kindergarten or first grade makes it much harder for children to read well. Look at the bar on the left. These are students who had satisfactory attendance. 64% of them were able to read proficiently by third grade. In contrast, look at the students who missed 10% or more of school in kindergarten and 1st grade (bar the right). Only 17% were able to read proficiently by 3rd grade. 17% Source: Applied Survey Research & Attendance Works (April 2011)

Why Are Students Missing So Much School? Myths Absences are only a problem if they are unexcused Sporadic versus consecutive absences aren’t a problem Attendance only matters in the older grades Aversion Child struggling academically Lack of engaging instruction Poor school climate and ineffective school discipline Parent had negative school experience Barriers Lack of access to health care Poor transportation No safe path to school Kids miss school for all sorts of reasons. Some of these reasons like bullying or poor transportation are hard for parents to control. But many of the reasons are within a parents control. That’s what we will talk about today.