Year three of our county-wide Attendance Awareness Campaign - special holiday messaging issue!
Themes for November:
Elementary School-
No empty chairs, we want you there!
Key Message:
For every day of school missed, it takes three days to make up what was taught. Families should avoid extended vacations that require your children to miss school.
Middle and High School-
School only gets harder when you stay at home too much!
Key Message:
Sometimes it's tempting to stay home because you've got too much work or you don't understand what's going on in class. But missing a day only makes it worse.
Communication Tools/Strategies:
All families want what is best for their children, but they don't always realize how absences can add up to academic problems. Sometimes they allow children to miss school when it's not absolutely necessary.
Plan a special event for the first day after the holiday break. If possible, create a contest or find ways to recognize good attendance. If you are equipped to text parents, send a text right before school starts again to remind them of special plans.
Encourage teachers to build it into their day to talk to students about the importance of showing up in the days before and after the holiday break, and to make those days extra enticing.
Tips for school leaders around holiday messaging, created by Attendance Works.
Tips for establishing school-wide attendance incentives
School attendance is a simple, easily understood measure of student performance. One strategy for improving attendance is engaging students, parents, educators and community members in a campaign that offers positive rewards for getting to school on time.
For the first time in a long time, here is
YOUR opportunity to make the Honor Roll! Tell us what attendance strategies you have effectively implemented at your school site and be recognized on the 2016-17 Principal Honor Roll.
We look forward to hearing about creative and effective strategies used to improve attendance. Please complete the survey by NOVEMBER 30th!
