This week we are highlighting an important topics for all our students- Attendance! September is also Attendance Awareness Month! 

Attendance Officer: Celia Flanagan

SCHOOL ATTENDANCE QUICK FACTS

“School attendance is a powerful predictor of student outcomes. Many states define chronic absenteeism as the percentage of students who miss 10 percent or more of days during the school year (or two days per month).”

1. Absenteeism in the first month of school can predict poor attendance throughout the school year.

3. Absenteeism and its ill effects can start early. *Nationally, one in 10 kindergarten and first grade students are chronically absent.

4. Poor attendance can influence whether children are reading proficiently by the end of third grade.

5. By 6th grade chronic absence becomes a leading indicator if students may eventually drop out of high school.

6.  The attendance crisis is having a broad impact on learning, given that 61 percent of schools nationally had high (20-29%) or extreme (30%+) levels of chronic absence.

7. The national report, Lingering Absence in Public Schools: Tracking Post-Pandemic Chronic Absenteeism into 2024, detailed the nation’s recent absenteeism statistics. It explored current data trends and national best practices. The final data presented in this national report indicates that Alabama now has one of the lowest absenteeism rates in the country.

9. The academic impact of missing school is the same whether the absences are excused or unexcused (in the traditional classroom or during remote/online learning).