Action Steps
At the Federal Level:
- Establish attendance as a priority goal in such Federal initiatives as Race to the Top and I3 grant applications, ESEA waivers, and Title I monitoring.
At the State Level:
- Require attendance goals in state school-accountability systems.
- Examine state policies to ensure their positive effect on student attendance.
- Identify schools with low absenteeism and share their practices with struggling schools.
- Develop an early warning system and appropriate responses.
At the Local Level:
- Speak with students to stress the importance of attendance and to help us get to the root of their absenteeism and raise the issue to a high profile.
- Create a local inter-agency task force to prevent and combat absenteeism.
Summarized from “The Importance of Being in School” (Balfanz, 2012). Click here to read the full report.
