Attendance Update

Good attendance helps children do well in school and eventually in the workplace. Good attendance matters for school success, starting as early as prekindergarten and  throughout elementary school. By middle and high school, poor attendance is a leading indicator of dropout. Developing the habit of attendance prepares students for success on the job and in life.

Excused and unexcused absences easily add up to too much time lost in the classroom. Students are at risk academically if they miss 10 percent of the school year, or about 18 days. Once too many absences have occurred, they can affect learning, regardless of whether absences are excused or unexcused. Sporadic, not just consecutive, absences matter. Before you know it – just one or two days a month can add up to nearly 10 percent of the schoolyear. (https://countmeinmaine.org)

We carefully track student attendance trends at Whittier. A team meets every Monday morning to review data and take steps to provide appropriate intervention. At this point, our 7th graders have attended 95.96% of school days and 8th graders have attended 95.28%. Last year, 13% of our students were deemed chronically absent due to missing over 90% of school days. This year, we have 24 students (8.7%) who would be considered chronically absent.

While we are going in the right direction, January and February can be tough months to get out the door and get to school. Please  make sure your child attends every day he or she  is healthy enough to attend, and let us know what kind of support we can provide to you.