Why attendance is important

Encouraging consistent attendance helps your child get better grades, develop healthy life habits, avoid dangerous behavior and have a better chance of graduating from high school. A good education often forms the foundation for ending the cycle of poverty in impoverished communities.

It can be difficult for teachers to teach the class and build their students skills when a number of children are regularly absent. Students who are not in school on a regular basis are more susceptible to getting involved in crime or potentially cause problems in their communities.

When students are not frequently absent, their grades and reading skills often improve—even among those students who are struggling in school. Students who frequently attend school feel more connected to their community and develop strong social skills and friendships, which are important life skills. These students also are much more likely to graduate from high school. Just two absences per month, even if excused, can increase the chances that a student will drop out of high school or have other negative impacts.

The effects of absences are noticeable as early as Kindergarten. Elementary school students who on average miss an average of two days per month struggle to keep up with their peers academically, resulting in lower grades and below grade level reading skills.

The effects of lost school days build up one absence at a time on individual students. Penalties for students who miss school may unintentionally worsen the situation. The disciplinary response to absenteeism too often includes loss of course credits, detention, and suspension. Any absence, whether excused or not, denies students the opportunity to learn in accordance with the school's instructional program, but students who miss school are sometimes further excluded from learning opportunities as a consequence of chronic absenteeism.

Skip Navigation. Search box. Why Does Attendance Matter? Absenteeism and its ill effects start early. One in 10 kindergarten and first grade students are chronically absent. Poor attendance can influence whether children read proficiently by the end of third grade or be held back. By 6th grade, chronic absence becomes a leading indicator that a student will drop out of high school.

Students who live in communities with high levels of poverty are four times more likely to be chronically absent than others often for reasons beyond their control, such as unstable housing, unreliable transportation and a lack of access to health care.

When students improve their attendance rates, they improve their academic prospects and chances for graduating. Attendance improves when schools engage students and parents in positive ways and when schools provide mentors for chronically absent students. They track how many students show up every day and how many are skipping school without an excuse, but not how many are missing so many days in excused and unexcused absence that they are headed off track academically.