There are countless benefits to increased student attendance- greater learning, a brighter future, less delinquency, and more funds for schools.

Parent/guardian involvement, or whole-family involvement. Over 30 years of research documents that when parents are involved in their child's education that child is more likely to succeed in school.  A continuum of supports, including meaningful incentives for good attendance and consequences for poor attendance.  Collaboration among community actors such as law enforcement, mental health workers, mentors, and social service providers, in addition to educators.

Some ideas to help with your student's attendance:

1)      Develop regular communication with teachers. A single contact is not enough to establish meaningful communication between your child's teacher and yourself. Instead, make a habit of communicating when necessary or call during the teacher's conference hour and ask how your child is doing.

2)      Attending school conferences. By attending all conferences, you increase the effectiveness of the meetings and always have a voice in the discussion. In addition, teachers and administrators will view your involvement as a sure sign that you are involved in the educational process with your child and that you are taking an active role in his academic progress.

3)      Encourage your child verbally and with rewards or incentives when he/she does well. Positive rewards often help kids remain excited about reaching higher goals. If certain rewards motivate your child, continue to use them when teachers send home improved grades.

4)      Set reasonable goals for improvement and announce the expectations to your child. Don't set the goals too high for your child to achieve. Instead, set realistic ones that will be good benchmarks to track her progress over time

5)      Set a schedule/time frame for completion of daily homework. One of the problems in completing homework in a timely manner is that kids tend to waste time when they get home. Consider a break from school for 30 minutes or so and then instruct your child to get back to studies before dinnertime. One other way you can control the amount of time involved is to put a timer on each separate homework task until she has completed each one. Consider rewarding with short 5-10 minutes breaks after the completion of each task.

6)      Teach kids to set their own priorities. Children should learn that it is important to put certain tasks before others an early age. By practicing this with homework and chores, you reinforce an important life skill will follow him throughout life.