By Maren Madalyn, contributing writer
“80% of success is showing up!”
How many of us educators (at least of my generation) heard this or similar adages from our teachers, parents, or other adults encouraging us to stay in class and keep focused on our studies?
When I worked in special education classrooms, I was exposed to a range of perspectives among our diverse teaching staff about what consistent attendance meant for learning. In some cases, teachers leaned on old sayings like this one as they emphasized the responsibility on parents (or teenagers for our older kids) of committing to school attendance and, by extension, academic learning.
But my experience working with students taught me otherwise. Though there is certainly some truth behind this saying, the reality of “showing up” to school isn’t so simple for many students.
And there are some common myths about attendance and absent students that are ready to be busted.
As we answer the question “Why is attendance important?”—let’s also unpack these myths and learn what research tells us is actually happening.
1. Excused absences are not the issue—it’s unexcused absences that cause challenges with learning.
Whether it’s a few days per month or several weeks of school, any absence from the classroom is time lost from that student’s learning. Further, children also miss out on important opportunities to connect with their peers and the larger school community.
However, it is also true that some students may miss more days of school than others. A pattern of chronic absences (defined as missing 10 percent or more of school days for any reason) takes a much heavier toll on student wellbeing, sense of belonging, mental health, and academic achievement than the occasional day missed.
The nonprofit Attendance Works points out that excessive absenteeism disproportionately affects certain student groups: “Children living in poverty are two to three times more likely to be chronically absent… Students from communities of color as well as those with disabilities are [also] disproportionately affected.”
This is why it’s crucial to understand why an individual student misses school, in each district’s unique context—more on this in a moment.
What You Can Do
Take time with your school district teams to reflect on how attendance impacts school climate and students’ engagement with school. You can start with examining attendance trends and looking for common patterns among those students with the most frequent absences.
You may need to solicit feedback from teachers and other staff members to understand the context of each student more intimately. Are they engaged in learning when present at school? What are family relationships with school staff like?
This reflection cycle can happen throughout the school year, too—attendance matters all year long, not solely during the back-to-school season!
2. Absenteeism can affect children before they enter kindergarten.
Ask any early childhood professional, and they’ll tell you this is unfortunately true—our youngest students are not immune to the negative impacts of absenteeism.
Research shows that students struggling with absenteeism in kindergarten and the early grades in elementary school are more impacted when it comes to literacy development and other academic outcomes like high school graduation (Ready, 2010). Even in secondary school itself, absences during freshman year are the strongest predictor of dropout risk, more so than test scores or other student characteristics (Allensworth & Easton, 2007).
What You Can Do
Spread the word with families about the value and importance of consistent attendance for students’ future success. If you’re an early childhood educator, you have an opportunity to set the foundation in place for families before their child enters a formal classroom setting—which is powerful! Cultivating early skills in advocacy and parent-teacher communication will serve caregivers well as their child transitions into kindergarten.
Take a look at our Family Communication Tip Sheet for strategies to strengthen your outreach about attendance and other key topics.
All educators can also create a sense of belonging and community from day one with their students’ caregivers. Download our checklist to help you prepare for a great back-to-school welcome (or really, welcome at any point in the school year).
3. Families are most responsible for getting their kids to school.
While families may be the first ones charged to bring kids to and from school, they are far from alone in their responsibility to keep children coming to school.
The entire community of educators, school staff, and leaders can play a significant role in supporting student attendance. Teachers keep students engaged with their learning and ensuring they have what they need to succeed. Supporting teaching staff are all the school principals who establish the attendance policy and help set the tone for a warm, welcoming, and inclusive environment for all students.
Then there are school bus drivers who shuttle children to school, as well as the local public transit organizations that students might use to get to campus… the list goes on.
In short, student attendance isn’t just a family concern. It’s a community-wide imperative that requires community-wide investments, engagement, and problem solving.
What You Can Do
Go deeper in understanding the intricacies behind your attendance trends. For example you and your team can ask questions like, “What factors contributed to the most common absences?” and “What are underlying patterns affecting families’ access to school?”
Then collaborate to design attendance strategies that remove those barriers wherever possible! Many early childhood and K12 organizations find success by leaning on community partnerships to support attendance. Attendance Works offers resources to community-based organizations for getting involved in reducing chronic absenteeism.
Don’t forget to explore our summary of how family-school-community partnerships can impact attendance.
4. Policies that use both consequences for absences and incentives for attendance are effective.
In fact, research has found the opposite to be true. School policies that adopt punitive measures for chronic absences are not effective in changing a student’s attendance patterns and often are disproportionately applied to more vulnerable student communities historically underserved by schools (Kearny et al., 2022). Incentives like attendance awards are also not particularly effective in driving attendance rates up across a community.
In addition to understanding the barriers to attendance unique to a school, it’s also imperative for educators to adopt a solutions-oriented approach to attendance that engages key partners like families and community organizations. In other words, use strengths-based approaches to collaborate!
What You Can Do
Most schools will send warnings or messages to families when things go off track with attendance. But as Hedy Chang, executive director at Attendance Works, puts it, “The key to improving attendance is identifying, understanding and addressing the things that cause kids to miss school in the first place.” She and her team recommend schools embrace a culture of “promoting participation” over a culture of “fighting absenteeism” as a means to shift mindsets towards the many benefits and successes that come with regular school attendance (Gentle-Genitty et al., 2020).
In this spirit, why not try sharing positive messages about a child’s great attendance record? A simple email celebrating a student’s consistent attendance rate (while also including important reminders about who to call if a child is ill or where to go with questions about attendance) is a powerful approach to communicating with families and models what a culture of “participation” looks like at school.
Explore Louisiana’s success story with adopting an attendance policy that emphasizes restorative practices over punitive measures when students miss school. Be sure to read our comprehensive guide, too, about proven strategies to boost attendance in partnership with families.
5. Promoting school attendance requires systemic solutions.
As we’ve explored until this point in our article, successful school attendance for all students is a community-wide effort. Not only does this mean engaging with key stakeholders such as families and partners at local organizations, but it also requires developing strategies to promote attendance in concert with one another—not in isolation.
For many K12 organizations, the Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) model can be a valuable tool to coordinate attendance support for all students and those individuals that would benefit from more targeted interventions. And family engagement is absolutely one of those supports that every student needs!
What You Can Do
Consider implementing a comprehensive, accessible, and evidence-based family engagement program as a Tier 1 support for all students and families—like ParentPowered.
Our curricula are designed to scaffold family-school partnerships by offering easy-to-do activities and parenting tips covering everything from social emotional learning to the value of attendance to school communication. The messages we send also educate families about their crucial role in student learning, including supporting positive school attendance as well as ways schools can help.
One program in particular, ParentPowered Trauma-Informed, can also support your organization with layering in Tier 2 family supports related to attendance. The program’s Community Support Stream enables your team to connect families with local resources, community events, and other services that could help them navigate challenges that impact attendance, such as transportation barriers or food insecurity.
In these ways, ParentPowered aligns with core elements of the Key Ingredients for Systemic Change developed by Attendance Works. Watch a self-paced tour to learn more about the program and its benefits.
But really, why is attendance important?
Those of us actively working with students and families (or designing programs that serve them) know that student attendance at school is critical to their long-term success. A plethora of research points to the positive impact of regular engagement at school and the consequences of chronic absenteeism on student outcomes.
Here are a few of the top gains and challenges associated with attendance.
When students regularly attend school, they:
- Gain critical academic skills more successfully (Ready, 2010; Georgia Department of Education, 2011).
- Cultivate social and emotional competencies that in turn support their learning and other outcomes such as high school graduation (Taylor et al., 2017).
- Are more likely to stay in school long-term and graduate high school (NCES, 2009).
When students regularly miss school, they:
- Miss crucial instructional time, which puts them at risk of falling behind their peers later in their school experience (Ansari & Purtell, 2018; Balfanz & Byrnes, 2006).
- May feel increasingly disconnected from the school community, which can fuel feelings of loneliness that further discourage their attendance.
- Are at greater risk for other health factors later in their teen and adult life, including substance use and referrals to the juvenile justice system (Kearney, 2008; Zhang et al., 2017).
Learn more about K12 attendance, its role in creating a positive school climate, and how family-school partnerships can promote it.
ParentPowered is your ally in strong family partnerships (and attendance rates)
Effective family engagement is the key to bolstering and maintaining students’ engagement with their learning. But parents and caregivers benefit from a little support to tap into those engagement opportunities—whether it’s a crucial conversation about careers with their teens, suggestions for how to best connect with their child’s teacher about concerns, or even tips for nurturing their own mental health.
That’s why ParentPowered designed its family engagement curriculum to scaffold parental engagement through weekly, evidence-based insights, tips, and activities—including messages clarifying why attendance is important. Join an upcoming info session to learn how ParentPowered supports districts with student attendance!
About the author
Maren Madalyn has worked at the intersection of K12 education and technology for over a decade, serving in roles ranging from counseling to customer success to product management. She blends this expertise with fluid writing and strategic problem-solving to help education organizations create thoughtful long-form content that empowers educators.
