Skip To Main Content

Attendance

A Principal’s Perspective: Why Attendance Matters

Attendance matters. Attendance is directly linked to poor performance in school. Every day students build upon prior knowledge (those lessons they learned the day before, or last week, or last year). Students who don’t come to school can’t gain the knowledge necessary to be successful in class each day and are much more likely to drop out of school. Attendance is so important that it is the very first indicator that a student will drop out of school. Read on to check out some facts about high school dropouts.

  • Students who fail school are three times more likely to be unemployed (Breslow, 2012).
  • They are more likely to live in poverty (Breslow, 2012).
  • Dropouts live, on average, 10-13 fewer years than those who graduate from high school (Tavernese, 2012).
  • High school dropouts are sixty-three times more likely to be incarcerated (Breslow, 2012).
  • Dropouts are also more likely to be prone to ill-health (OECD, 2011).

If attendance is the first indicator that a student might drop out of school, we owe it to our children to make sure they get to school every day, on time. Their future depends on it. According to Greenstone, et al. (2013), education is the most powerful tool for helping student rise above poverty. Rest assured that when your child is at school every day, he is not only learning reading, writing, and math; he is also gaining exposure and experiences, along with learning a strong work ethic that will make him employable in the work force later. Let’s all do our part to make that happen!

Texas Attendance Law Information