The Thomasville City Schools District has joined a nationwide effort to celebrate the Attendance Awareness Campaign in September and has pledged focus on reducing chronic absenteeism in the new school year.
Thomasville City Schools recognizes that good attendance is essential to academic success, but far too many students are at risk academically because they are chronically absent. Chronic absence is described as missing 10 percent of the school year—or about 18 days— for any reason.
“We need students at school so that teachers can teach grade level standards to them,” said Vickie Morris, Thomasville City School Superintendent.
Our country faces a school attendance crisis. Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, eight million students were chronically absent. Early data from states indicates that it has likely doubled, potentially affecting nearly 16 million students nationwide by the end of the 2021–22 school year.
Starting as early as kindergarten or even preschool, chronic absence predicts lower third grade reading scores. By middle school, it’s a warning sign that students will fail key classes and drop out of high school, research shows.
“There is research to prove that students with good school attendance achieve higher academic levels than students with poor attendance,” Morris said.
Chronic absence disproportionately affects children from low-income families and communities of color, creating attendance gaps that exacerbate achievement gaps in local schools. This is not just a matter of truancy. Many children, especially in the early grades, miss too much school because of chronic health problems, unreliable transportation or housing moves—barriers that city agencies and community partners can help families address.
“We will have more successful students when they attend school consistently,” the superintendent said.
Research shows that students who miss two to four days in the first month of school are more likely to become chronically absent during the school year. By paying attention to absences early in the school year and early in a child’s academic career, we can turn around attendance and achievement.
“School attendance needs to be a top priority in the educational process,” Morris said.