Top Ten Attendance Strategies

by James Lauritsen

As an experienced Attendance Teacher with the West Babylon School District, I’d like to share some strategies I currently use, or plan to use to improve school attendance.

1. Start young.

Monitoring the attendance of elementary age students sends the message to students and their families that attendance is important even in the early years of schooling.  

2. Reward good attendance.  

Our junior high school has homerooms competing in a monthly contest for the best attendance.  Winning homerooms get gift certificates, tee-shirts, and recognition.  In addition to raising awareness, it promotes teamwork among students and staff.

3. Create an attendance mascot (Attendance Andy) for promoting good attendance and other positive character traits for students (perseverance, responsibility, honesty, respect, courage, etc.).

4. Develop a positive relationship with teachers.  

Teachers are often the first to notice a change in student attendance.  Letting them know you are the “go to” person to help them with any attendance concerns will allow for problems to be addressed as soon as possible.

5. Be a presence for students.

I am at the late clock every day to monitor late students.  I get to know the habituals and develop a rapport with them.  I know some students who probably barely make it to school on time just because they do not want to see me AGAIN at late check in.

6. Get real.

I remind students that the two real reasons for good attendance is two-fold. In addition to better academic performance, future employers are looking for reliable, on time workers.  We are teaching our students to be life long learners that are successfully prepared for the workforce.

7. Get stakeholders on your side.

In addition to educating stakeholders about the importance of school attendance, I ask them to let me know what I can do to help.  Sometimes, it is meeting with students, or providing a social service reference to deal with child care, elder care, or other issues that may be affecting student attendance.

8. Make home visits.

For students with habitual attendance concerns, home visits send the message that attendance is a serious issue.  By doing this, we continue to strengthen the home-school connection even if a student is not in school.

9. Make community connections.

Rotary clubs, chambers of commerce, and local businesses are community contacts that can also recognize and reward good student attendance.

10. Meet and greet new registrants.

I plan to introduce myself to every family entering our school district.  I want every new entrant to be familiar with and understand our attendance policy, especially our loss of credit policy.