Attendance

Attendance is a major factor in allowing children and teens to succeed in school. Research shows that students in any grade, including Kindergarten, have difficulty catching up if they miss too much school. Absenteeism is also a very strong predictor of dropout rates, more so than suspensions, test scores, or retention.

Our school want to work with you, our parents and guardians to ensure student success. By making attending school a priority, your child will have a better chance of succeeding and feeling good about their progress in school. Students who miss 15 days of school per year will miss a year of school before Grade 12. A student with 90% attendance will miss 4 weeks of school per year. Being 10 minutes late for class every day means the student will miss 6 days of instruction over the year.

Regular attendance is a habit that translates into life beyond high school graduation. It prepares your child for the world of work. Explore more below.

• ​Parents/Guardians play an important role in the education of their children. Their involvement and encouragement can help a child/teen succeed in school.
• Other family members and friends can also play a key role in ensuring students understand why they must attend school to succeed.
• Success in school starts with regular attendance from the early years right through high school completion. Did you know that chronic absenteeism makes learning more difficult even as early as Kindergarten?

Our school is committed to working with parents and guardians to find solutions to support your child's learning success.

Alberta Education provides resources to support parent/guardian involvement. For more information, visit: My Child's Learning: A Parent Resource (learnalberta.ca)

Understanding the 'why' behind poor attendance habits can help families start to address their concerns. There are three categories:

Can Not

Sometimes students cannot attend school because of illness, injury, family problems, housing instability or involvement with the justice system. 

Will Not

Sometimes, students will not attend school to avoid bullying, unsafe conditions, harassment, embarrassment related to learning difficulties, physical challenges, a new environment or even sanctions for being late. 

Do Not

Sometimes students do not attend school because they may not know the importance of attending it. 

What can families do?

• Make attendance a priority for your family
• Be sure your child gets enough sleep
• Have a regular homework schedule
• Communicate with your child's teacher(s) and school
• Encourage your child to participate in school clubs and after-school activities

If your child can’t, won’t or doesn’t attend, please make the attendance connection with the school. Call the school office during regular school hours to get started.

Parents/Guardians and schools can work together to find solutions supporting children/teen's learning success.

Success in school starts with regular attendance from the early years right through high school completion. Did you know that even as early as Kindergarten, chronic absenteeism makes it more difficult to learn?

For students to experience success, positive connections must be created and maintained between the school staff, the student and their family.

A student who has missed 10 percent (about 18 days) or more of the school year or in the previous year missed a month of school.

Children often find it difficult to catch up on missed work.

Parents underestimate their child’s absences by 50%.

Reducing chronic absence can help close achievement gaps.

Only 17% of kids who are chronically absent in Kindergarten and 1st grade are proficient in reading by the end of 3rd grade.

Talk to us or visit www.attendanceworks.org for more attendance strategies and resources.