by Kyle Price
Kearns Jr. High Community School Coordinator
This month at Kearns Junior High we are participating in Attendance Awareness Month. This national initiative is aimed at raising awareness around the importance of regular attendance and the seriousness of chronic absence in our schools. Chronic absence occurs when students miss 10 percent of school days for any reason (excused or unexcused), which breaks down to as little as 2 absences per month. Over time, these absences add up and can lead to significantly lower chances of a student graduating. In fact, a chronically absent student is 7 times more likely to not graduate than a student with satisfactory attendance[1].
Kearns Junior will be kicking-off Attendance Awareness Month with a school-wide weekly attendance competition. First period classrooms will compete against each other for treats and prizes to be the classroom with the highest percentage of daily attendance. In addition to reaching out to the students on the issue, we also reached out to parents at our Hot Dog Hello event on September 3. Parents were given information about the importance of attendance and the effects that absences can have on a student’s academic performance. Parents were also given useful resources outlining how to support student attendance and how to check their student’s attendance online.
We are very excited to be kicking-off the new school year with an emphasis on attendance and hope to make it a focus for all of our students and parents throughout the year!
