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September Marks Attendance Awareness Month, School Officials and Local Leadership Say Attendance Matters to Community
Oxford, Mississippi (September 13, 2017) — Oxford school officials, local municipal and county leaders have joined a nationwide effort to celebrate Attendance Awareness Month in September, pledging to raise awareness about the value of regular school attendance and focus on reducing chronic absenteeism in area schools this school year.
The Oxford School District (OSD) recognizes that good attendance is essential to academic success. In fact, school officials say far too many students are at risk academically because they are chronically absent, and that’s why Oxford school officials are teaming up with community partners to get the message out: Attendance matters to all, especially students.
“Starting as early as kindergarten or even preschool, chronic absence — missing ten percent of the school year or about 18 school days for any reason, excused or unexcused — predicts lower third-grade reading scores,” said OSD Superintendent Brian Harvey. “By middle school, it’s a warning sign that students will fail key classes and drop out of high school.”
Suzanne Ryals, director of early childhood and reading development for Oxford and Lafayette County, agrees with Harvey: making every school day count is a message that they want to fall on the ears of the community, especially parents.
“Our families play a critical role in getting children to school on time every day,” said Ryals. “Parents are responsible for helping build a habit of good school attendance, enforcing bedtime and other routines, and avoiding vacations while school is in session. Believe it or not, problems with absenteeism start surprisingly early.”
National research shows that one in 10 kindergarten and first-grade students are chronically absent because of excused or unexcused absences. These early absences can rob students of what they need to develop literacy skills, says Ryals.
“Children who are chronically absent in kindergarten and first grade are less likely to read proficiently by the third grade,” said Ryals. “Most students who fail to reach this critical milestone falter in the later grades. By middle school, chronic absence becomes one of the leading indicators that a student will drop out of high school.”
“Our schools are held accountable for helping all children achieve, providing effective teaching for all children in every classroom every day,” added Ryals. “All our efforts to improve curriculum and instruction won’t matter much if our kids are not in school: after all, how will our kids succeed if they are not showing up to class to learn?
Chronic absence disproportionately affects children from low-income families and communities, creating attendance gaps that directly impact achievement gaps in local schools. Many reasons that children miss too much school, especially in early grades, is because of chronic health problems, unreliable transportation or housing moves: these are all barriers that city agencies and community partners can help families address.
“We know that we will never narrow the achievement gap or reduce our dropout rate until we bring this problem under control, and that means starting early,” said Harvey. “By paying attention to absences early in the school year and early in a child’s academic career, we can turn around attendance and achievement.”
The Oxford School District is asking community advocates, parents and students to act on these critical first steps to help stem chronic absenteeism:
- Build a habit and a culture of regular attendance
- Identify and address barriers to getting children to school, and
- Use data to determine when and with whom chronic absence is a problem.
“This important topic matters to all of us, not just those with school-age children,” said Harvey. “When our schools graduate more students on time, our communities and our economy are stronger. We have more people who are prepared for the workplace and more engaged in our community’s civic life.”
Throughout the month of September, city agencies, community nonprofits, faith-based groups, businesses and others around the nation are committing time and resources to raise public awareness and work with community partners to improve school attendance starting as soon as children enter school. Locally, community partners are working in ways to address the topic head on, and the beginning of the school year serves as an important reminder that attendance matters to all: everyone plays an important role in making sure that school children get to school every day.
“Research shows that students who miss two to four days in the first month of school are more likely to become chronically absent during the school year,” said Ryals. “By paying attention to absences early in the school year and early in a child’s academic career, we can turn around attendance and achievement.”
OSD has free online materials and resources readily available for parents, families, community leaders and students to use to share the message and learn more about why attendance matters: visit www.oxfordsd.org/AttendanceMatters.