Attendance Matters
Getting every student to school, every day matters. Missing just 2 days of school per month, or about 10% of school days in a year, means students don’t learn as well and are at risk for falling behind and even dropping out. But families and schools can work together to prevent absences and any negative effects they can cause. Check out the easy ways YOU can take action below!
For more info and ways to help, contact:
TBD
PTO & Wellness Councils
Parent Teacher Organizations and Local School Wellness Councils do tons of amazing work for our schools and students. By going to a meeting or joining the group, these organizations can help make sure your thoughts and opinions are included in the conversation around attendance concerns at your student's school.
For more info and how to join, contact:
TBD
Sign up to receive campaign updates. No spam, promise! Just important info to keep your student’s school healthy.
Learn More
Attendance, Chronic Absenteeism, and Health
Everyone’s students miss a day of school here and there, but have you ever wondered how many days too many to miss before it starts negatively affecting your student? Less than you think - and it doesn’t matter the reason. Whether they are too sick to get to school or life just gets in the way and can’t get your student to class that day - all absences matter. Missing just 10% of the school year means our students can’t learn as well and end up falling behind. Depending on your school, that as little around 18 days of school missed over the whole year or just 2 days per month. You might hear this referred to by your school or school district as “Chronic Absenteeism,” and it has been associated with third-graders unable to master reading, sixth-graders failing subjects, and ninth-graders dropping out of high school.
Here’s another surprising fact about absences: Other students’ poor attendance can affect your student’s success in school too. When teachers have to bounce between old and new lessons to accommodate those who missed class, then no one learns at the right pace for success. The good news? Families and school can work together to make sure absences don’t become a problem for any student.
Health-related Absences
Students’ physical and mental health conditions are actually the leading cause of chronic absenteeism. Schools play a major role in keeping our kids healthy enough to attend class every day. Schools are working hard to create a healthy environment at school. For example, every school can make sure they are a safe and clean place to learn and grow - a place that’s free of things that could trigger common health issues students may have, such allergies or asthma. Schools can also help connect us to health services our students need for other chronic conditions that can cause them to miss school, like diabetes or depression. Plus, schools provide healthy foods and opportunities for physical activity - which build strong bodies that fight off illness, and strong minds to learn.
Families can also make sure they really know whether their student is too sick to go to school or not. Of course no one wants to spread germs, but when families hold a student out of school for things like a minor cold, those absences start to add up. And what if one child in a family is sick but not all of them? Parents and caregivers can still make sure the students who aren’t sick do get to school. Otherwise we risk all of them falling behind.
Hidden Numbers
When families and schools pay attention to sometimes under the radar numbers of absences, they can prevent the negative effects on students before they happen! For parents and caregivers, it’s important to stay informed on your students attendance, and District 209 has a tool to do just that: PowerSchool. You can set up alerts for missing class, missing assignments, grades and especially attendance - to make sure those absence numbers aren’t adding up to risky levels.
For schools themselves, many rely mostly on “Attendance” numbers: how many students show up to school each day. But they may pay less attention to “Absence” numbers: who is NOT showing up. Schools are already required to keep track of and report numbers of absences - but with your encouragement, they can make better use of them to benefit our students. When they do, they are able to see which students’ absences are getting to risky levels, and use the process in place to support these students and their families to make it easier to get that student to school.
Spread the word that attendance matters by sharing the video below (who doesn’t love puppets!?), and head back up to section above for other easy ways to take action!
A Piece of the School Wellness Puzzle
Attendance is just one important piece of a much part of a larger picture of “School Wellness.” School wellness efforts are aimed at creating the healthiest school environment possible for our youth to learn and grow. Schools provide a place for students to not only learn what’s in their books and on the whiteboard, but to develop healthy habits, like healthy eating and being physically active. This makes preventing absences and getting to school each all the more important. Students who show good attendance, eat well, and stay active, also perform better in school, showing higher grades and test scores.
All school districts already have written standards in place to make sure they provide your students with the healthiest school environment possible - typically referred to as a School Wellness Policy. But they need parents and families like you to make sure those standards are up to par, and are actually implemented at your individual schools!
Check out the video below to learn more about school wellness and why it matters.