You can't learn if you're not in school

Coeur d'Alene Public Schools has joined a nationwide effort to celebrate "Attendance Awareness Month" in September and has pledged to raise awareness about the value of regular school attendance and focus on reducing chronic absenteeism throughout the school year.

Our district recognizes that good attendance is essential to academic success. But far too many students are at risk academically because they are chronically absent. Chronic absence is described as missing 10 percent of the school year - or about 18 days - for any reason, excused or unexcused. That's the point at which absenteeism begins to affect student performance, research shows.

Nationally, 5 million to 7.5 million miss nearly a month of school in excused and unexcused absences every year. In Idaho, 20 percent of fourth-graders and 21 percent of eighth-graders were considered chronically absent, paralleling similar national statistics.

Starting as early as kindergarten, chronic absence predicts lower 3rd-grade reading scores. By middle school it's a warning sign that students will fail key classes and be more prone to dropping out of high school.

Chronic absence disproportionately affects children from low-income families, creating attendance gaps that exacerbate achievement gaps in local schools. This is not just a matter of truancy. Many children, especially in the early grades, miss too much school because of chronic health problems, unreliable transportation or housing moves - barriers that community partners can help families address alongside efforts made by our school district.

"It is our job to support our families in getting students to school and keeping students engaged so they want to remain in school," Superintendent Matt Handelman explains. "All our efforts to improve teaching and learning will not have the desired impact if kids are not regularly attending school. We want to get our students on a winning streak and feeling good about school."

Schools and communities around the nation are committing time and resources to raise public awareness to improve school attendance starting as soon as children enter school. For public schools in Coeur d'Alene, the first day of school is Tuesday, Sept. 8.

Last school year, the average daily attendance for all Coeur d'Alene schools was 93.5 percent. Our goal this year is to achieve an average daily attendance of 95 percent.

CdA Public Schools is promoting its "Make Every Day Count" back to school student incentive campaign. The program has two goals, to promote student success through consistent attendance and to support our school district's financial health. In Idaho, state funding is based on average daily attendance. The stronger our school's attendance at key reporting times, the more dollars our district receives for classroom supplies, staff and program support. The state's first attendance reporting period is through Friday, Nov. 6.

Students earning 100 percent attendance each week in September and October will be eligible to participate in weekly drawings for gift cards, movie passes and other prizes. Students who earn 97.5 percent school attendance or higher for the first 9 weeks of school, (missing up to 1 day) will be entered into a drawing to win an iPad or iPad mini.

"Attending school is essential; it sets the stage for life," Board Chair Christa Hazel states. "When our schools graduate more students, on time, our communities and our economy are stronger. We have more people who are prepared for the workplace and value the importance of engaging in our community's civic life."

"September is a particularly good time to focus on attendance," states Hedy Chang, director of Attendance Works, a national nonprofit dedicated to improve school attendance. "Research shows that students who miss two to four days in the first month of school are more likely to become chronically absent during the school year. By paying attention to absences early in the school year and early in a child's academic career, we can turn around attendance and achievement."

During Attendance Awareness Month, we are asking school leaders, community advocates, and parents and students to act upon these critical first steps to help stem chronic absenteeism:

n Build a habit and a culture of regular attendance

n Use data to determine when and with whom chronic absence is a problem, and

n Identify and address barriers to getting children to school.

Study after study shows that chronic absence is an early warning indicator that a student will drop out of a high school. A recent study from Utah found that a student who was chronically absent in any year between eighth and 12th grade was 7.4 times more likely to drop out than students with better attendance.

Laura Rumpler is communications director for Coeur d'Alene School District. This project is being done with cooperation from Attendance Works (attendanceworks.org).