Happy Sunday, Pride!

Later this week, we'll be transitioning from August to September and September is National Attendance Month. We want to encourage you to have your students at school as much as possible. Their attendance really does matter....but why? Is it really a big deal when a child is absent lots? Are they really missing out on much if they have some tardies (or early dismissals) regularly? If they are a few minutes late or leave a few minutes early, surely they don't miss much. Hmmm...... Let me give you some perspective.

1. Attendance affects achievement. We can't teach them if they aren't with us. They lose the opportunity to learn content (i.e. reading, writing, math, science and social studies). As a school that focuses on PBL, they lose precious time collaborating with their research partners. We strive to take kids where they are and move them as far as they can go. Their learning is impacted when they are not with us. A teacher cannot ever give back the same amount of time in helping a child catch up as when he/she taught the material the first time.
2. Poor attendance is frustrating for kids. They feel that they're always trying to catch up with what they missed. They can't connect with what happened the day before (or an hour ago) because they were not there to experience it. Many kids thrive on structure and consistency and when that is interrupted, it upsets them.
3. Poor attendance steals time away from other children's learning. We usually think that only our child is impacted if he is absent or late or leaves early. The truth is that 20 other students are affected. Think about it. The teacher has to stop and catch the child up. Kids are distracted from their own learning by the interruption. The office calls into the classroom and all learning stops until the student is dismissed. Consider how much time is lost if multiple kids are absent or late or leave early. Any and every interruption hinders children from learning.
4. Money is not used wisely when kids are absent. It would be a conservative estimate to say that it costs $50 a day to educate a child. All taxpayers want our children to receive a high quality education. They want to know that their dollars are invested well. When kids miss time in school, they do not access costly resources. We would never throw $50 away. When kids are absent or late needlessly, that is exactly what happens. There is a specific financial cost to all we do. We want to be good stewards of the resource called education.

For children and teachers, we know that there are times of sickness or family emergencies or extenuating circumstances when we can't be and shouldn't be at school. Life happens. We also know that we, as educators, need to be just as responsible in being present as we want our students to be. For all of us, when we show up to teach and learn, we are being good stewards of the resources we have to promote the greater good. Attendance matters to everyone in order to accomplish the hopes and dreams we have for our kids.

In Strength and Blessings,

~Dr. Compton