About Attendance Works
Attendance Works is a national and state initiative that promotes better policy and practice around school attendance. We promote tracking chronic absence data for each student beginning in kindergarten, or ideally earlier, and partnering with families and community agencies to intervene when poor attendance is a problem for students or schools.
Why it Matters
Every year, one in 10 kindergarten and 1st grade students misses a month of school with excused and unexcused absences. By middle and high school, the rates of chronic absence are far higher.
Starting in kindergarten, these absences can affect academic achievement, especially for low-income students unable to make up for lost time, research shows. They can leave children unable to read well by the end of 3rd grade, exacerbating the achievement gap. And they can set a pattern of poor attendance and academic failure for older students, fueling the dropout rate.
What Can I Do?
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Our Latest
Newsletter
Our newsletter features the latest news on the research, policy and practice for improving school attendance.
SUPERINTENDENTS CALL TO ACTION
MAKE EVERY DAY COUNT
Superintendents and school leaders play a pivotal role in monitoring and improving school attendance. Leaders across the country are joining our Call to Action on attendance, jointly sponsored by the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading. Learn more about how you can sign up and reduce the number of students in your schools and district who are chronically absent—missing nearly a month or more of school every year.
Attendance Works
Latest News
05.20
2013
New Toolkit: Parent Engagement and Attendance - Parent and family engagement is a crucial to any effective, comprehensive approach to reducing chronic absence. Parents, especially in the early grades, play a key role in making Continue Reading →
05.16
2013
June 7 Webinar: How Local Communities Can Encourage Student Attendance in September - Join us at 1-2:15 p.m. Eastern, 10-11:15 a.m. Pacific: Children who go to school every day are winners. They benefit by learning more and Continue Reading →
05.08
2013
Reporting on Absenteeism Wins Top Prizes - The first time Chicago Tribune reporter David Jackson requested information on attendance in Chicago Public Schools was 1999. He had talked to a juvenile Continue Reading →
September 2013
ATTENDANCE AWARENESS MONTH
Every school day counts, and everyone can make a difference: educators, afterschool programs, mayors, businesses and parents. That’s why Attendance Works is joining other partners to launch Attendance Awareness Month this September in communities across the United States. Join in and rally your community around the importance of attendance and raising achievement by monitoring and reducing chronic absence.