Today, school and community leaders from throughout central Texas gathered to kick off a regional school attendance and awareness campaign —Missing School Matters. Organized by the E3 Alliance, the campaign to improve school attendance. Since September is National Attendance Awareness Month, it’s a good time to be reminding students and families about the importance of being in class every day.
When students aren’t in class, they have to work doubly hard to catch up with the material that they missed; teachers lose class time helping those students catch up; and that the district loses state funding—about $45 per day—for every day that a student has an unexcused absence.
AISD launched its own attendance campaign--Every Day Counts--in 2010. Over the past three years, our focus on improving attendance has produced results. Gains have been particularly strong at the high school level. Among all student groups, attendance
AISD launched its own attendance campaign--Every Day Counts--in 2010. Over the past three years, our focus on improving attendance has produced results. Gains have been particularly strong at the high school level. Among all student groups, attendance
- at the high school level increased from 90.7% in 2010 to 92.5% in 2012
- in middle school rose from 94.7% in 2010 to 96% in 2012; and
- at the elementary level, increased from 96.1% in 2010 to 96.3% in 2012.
These improvements have generated more than $5 million in additional state funding, which can be invested in the classroom. If every student came to class every day, if we had 100 percent attendance, under the new state finance system our district would receive about $30 million more per year in state funding.
This month, the district will launch the second year of an attendance campaign for students and staff in partnership with the University of Texas. Schools with improved staff and student attendance will be rewarded with vouchers for staff to attend UT athletic events.
We will continue to focus on improving attendance by monitoring attendance data for high-need campuses every two weeks, and in some cases, contacting parents. We will also continue efforts to educate staff and parents about state laws and district policies on attendance and the correlation between attendance and improved academic outcomes.
Regular school attendance is a habit that needs to be developed early in a child’s life, even as early as pre-kindergarten, and reinforced over the years. We can’t wait until students are in high school to educate them about the importance of being in class.
We’re proud to be part of the regional Missing School Matters campaign to improve student attendance throughout central Texas. Because our whole region will reap the benefits when more of our students and families are aware of the importance of attending school every day.