September is the time to focus on attendance

It is so important to start the year off with the message to families that students need to be in their seats on time every day they are not sick.  Have you looked at your school's data to see how many students missed more than 10% of the school year last year?  I did and most of those who were absent (and many of them had lots of tardies too) do not have any significant health challenges.  We are going to pilot one of the strategies from the attendanceworks web site.  At the end of each month a kindergarten teacher will send a short note thanking the parents in her class that got their child to school every day on time.  The research is clear that patterns of attendance start in kindergarten.  This site has lots of good ideas.  Remember if you are thinking about RAMP attendance makes a great program goal for closing the gap.