Attendance

Attendance matters

EVERY MINUTE COUNTS! 

Build the Habit of Good Attendance: 

“Attendance is essential to school success, but too often students, parents and schools do not realize how quickly absences — excused and unexcused — can add up to academic trouble. Chronic absence — missing 10 percent of the school year, or just 2-3 days every month can translate into third-graders unable to master reading, sixth-graders failing courses and ninth-graders dropping out of high school. Low-income students, who most depend on school for opportunities to learn, are especially harmed when they miss too much instruction.”

Parents, you can promote good attendance when you:

  1. Establish and stick to the basic routines (going to bed early, waking up on time, etc.) that will help your child develop the habit of on-time attendance.

  2. Talk to your child about why going to school every day is critical and important unless they are sick. If your child seems reluctant to go to school, find out why and work with the teacher, administrator or afterschool provider to get them excited about going to school.

  3. Come up with back up plans for who to turn to (another family member, a neighbor or fellow parents) to help you get your child to school if something comes up (e.g. another child gets sick, your car breaks down, etc.).

  4. Reach out for help if you are experiencing tough times (e.g. transportation, unstable housing, loss of a job, health problems) that make it difficult to get your child to school. Other parents, your child’s teacher, principal, school nurse, afterschool providers or community agencies can help you problem solve or connect you to a needed resource.

  5. If your child is absent, work with the teacher to make sure she or he has an opportunity to learn and make up for the academics missed. information from www.attendanceworks.org 

When your child does need to be absent, please call our school office at 636-980-1800 to verify their absence.  You may call at any time outside of office hours, too, and leave a voice message.   If you do not call to verify the absence, office staff will be contacting you.