Attendance Matters!
Welcome back to school! September is Attendance Awareness Month, but good attendance habits should be encouraged all year long, in every grade of their school career. Since 2014, GRPS has decreased chronic absenteeism significantly, but there is still work to do to ensure that all our students are in school and learning every day.
Studies show that chronic absence — missing 10% of the school year for any reason, excused or unexcused — impacts elementary students’ abilities to master reading by the end of third grade, and impacts drop out rates for middle and high school students. If left unchecked, chronic absenteeism can become a learned habit. That means that, when a student is chronically absent in elementary school, they are likely to have similar attendance in middle and high school.
In this month’s edition of Power Parent Magazine, you’ll find these great resources:
- How much do you know about the importance of good attendance? Put your understanding to the test in The Importance of Attendance
- How’d you do? Find the answers to the attendance pop quiz under Check your Answers!
- Under News Travels Fast, you’ll find links to news articles spotlighting GRPS’ innovative attendance campaign
- Knowledge is power! Learn about the barriers that contribute to poor attendance, and the ways we can work together to overcome those barriers, in Eliminating Barriers Together
- In Family Guides, you’ll find a collection of helpful handouts designed by Attendance Works to help families like yours build the habit of attendance
- Learn why some specialists think sleep is link “food for your brain” in Forming Healthy Sleep Habits