School attendance matters. We all know that. We also know there are a lot of reasons that students miss school. But did you know that an estimated 5 million to 7.5 million U.S. students miss nearly a month of school each year. Research shows that missing 10 percent of the school, or about 18 days in most school districts, negatively affects a student’s academic performance. That’s just two days a month and that’s known as chronic absence.
By 6th grade, chronic absence becomes a leading indicator that a student will drop out of high school.
Obviously when a student misses school, they miss out on important opportunities for learning. Let’s say a child misses school on Monday. They will be one day behind their peers who were in school. When the child returns to school on Tuesday they then have to “catch up” to their peers, but the problem is that their peers are continuing to build on what the absent student is just learning. The academic gap will continue to grow, and will only be exacerbated by future absences.
If a child feels legitimately ill, they should stay home to protect themselves and their peers. But we work together as a school community to ensure that our students are in class, learning, by limiting additional absences, we will foster academically successful young people.
