Attendance Matters

September is National Attendance Awareness Month.  Regular school attendance is so important it gets an entire month of recognition and celebration! (Not that National Taco Day on Oct. 4 isn’t cause for celebration, too.) Did you know? Good attendance is important starting in kindergarten. Children with good attendance in kindergarten and first grade are more likely to read on grade level in third grade. By grade 6, poor attendance can be an early warning sign for students at risk of dropping out of school. By ninth grade, good attendance can predict graduation rates even better than eighth-grade test scores. A student’s attendance in the previous year can predict his or her attendance in the current school year. Students miss school for many reasons. They may be absent sporadically due to illnesses, college visits or planned family events. Other students may face more significant barriers to regular attendance resulting in more frequent and long-term absences. Some absences may be excused and others are unexcused. Regardless of the reason for the absence, every day in school matters because some lessons cannot be made up at home.  Attendance has a significant impact on achievement throughout a student’s school career.