On time on target for success

This is one of my September bulletin boards that was on the main hall for the first day of school and Back-to-School Night. It goes along with Attendance Awareness Month. At our school the classroom doors open at 8:50 and school officially starts with Pledge at 9:00. We try to encourage students to be lined up outside of their classrooms by 8:50. Along side are 2 QR Codes that link parents to articles that provide hints to get children to school on time. Most of my parents have smartphones and they would rather scan these to their phone than take a print copy. The small sign in yellow at the bottom is September Counts! downloaded from attendanceworks.org/ that has lots of great resources.

Spread the Word: September is Attendance Awareness Month

Attendance is one of the outcome measures school counselors implementing the ASCA National Model use for outcome data. A great resource for ideas about how to promote on time and on target school attendance is available free at attendanceworks.org/ They have the whole compliment of resources for Attendance Awareness Month including a free webinar, toolkit, great graphics, sample tweets, and materials in Spanish too! We have done this annually at my school. We have each teacher put a slide in their Back-to-school Night PowerPoint addressing our attendance policy. We have a very visible bulletin board in place for the first day of school so parents can clearly see what time we want our students at school (10 minutes before school actually starts so they can get settled and ready to learn with the bell),

September is Attendance Awareness Month

This is the counseling program bulletin board that greeted families at our Open House during pre-service and sends a positive message about attendance. If you need resources go to
attendanceworks.org/

September is Attendance Awareness Month

I hope everyone is planning their campaign for Attendance Awareness Month. Pictured above is the darling bulletin board my wonderful volunteer made for me last September that I will be putting back up with a new background. We also laminated copies of the banner available for free download at attendanceworks.org along with lots of great ideas and research.  Attendance is an area in the ASCA National Model that counselors are tasked with addressing.  Encourage all students to come to school on time every day (unless they are seriously sick or there is a family emergency).  I encourage staff not to send the message taking family vacations is an excuse for being out or providing busy work packets for the plane can possibly makeup for missing what happens in the classroom. Children and families need clear messages abut the importance of regular school attendance. The Attendance Works site makes a point to say start reinforcing good attendance in kindergarten!

Attendance Awareness Month

Attendance Awareness Month is a nationwide event recognizing the connection between school attendance and academic achievement. The goal is to mobilize schools and communities not only to promote the value of good attendance, but also to take concrete steps toward reducing chronic absence. More than 40 national organizations are working in partnership on the event.

My school is participating for the second year. See the Attendance Works website for a free /toolkit/\

New Goals

According to the Third Edition of the ASCA National Model program goals should target improved student achievement, attendance, and behavior. Last year we focused on the overall attendance rate at our school because it had dropped in 2012-2013 from the previous two years. We used a lot of ideas from the Attendance Works website to impact attendance.  This year our goal will address those students with chronic absences. We have students who are tardy repeatedly and miss over 15 days of school a year.  We have a new social worker this year who will hopefully be active on our attendance team so we can change the behavior of the children/families who are not making on time school attendance a priority. I am still working on the wording of my SMART Goal but I will post it later.

Attendance Counts

We have a goal to raise our Average Daily Attendance rate this year.  Each day the attendance secretary fills in this sign in our front lobby (based on the previous school day's numbers) the number of students who were in school on time and stayed all day, the number of tardy arrivals, and the number of early dismissals. We are trying to build a culture that children should be in school unless they are ill or there is a family emergency.

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.

Attendance Works

I imagine many elementary counselors use attendance as one of the school counseling program goals.  I hope you are aware of the wonderful web site Attendance Works.  I participated in one of their webinars earlier this week called "Absences Add Up!"  It really helped clarify for me a new way to look at chronic absences and tardiness.  The webinar is available in their archives for free. They are teaming up with several community partners to promote attendance through a nationwide campaign starting right after Labor Day.  I have already contacted my building and district administrators about participating.  I suggest you check out the Attendance Works site and see if this would be a good activity for your school. They have a free toolkit available.