EVERY MINUTE COUNTS

 

Parenting is a very difficult job.  Parents can become effective partners in their child’s education beginning in Kindergarten.  When you, as a parent, are a partner in your child’s education, your involvement contributes to their success and achievement.

As soon as a child begins school, parents can be enlisted as partners to reinforce the benefits of regular, on-time school attendance.  The school can help parents believe in and share the following messages:
• The more you are in school, the more you will learn.
• The more you learn, the higher your grades will be.
• The better your grades, the more you will enjoy school.
• The longer you stay in school, the more likely you are to succeed in careers and life.

Regular, on-time school attendance is a goal that can only be achieved with the cooperation of both parent and child.  Absences contribute to lost learning.  Parents should make every effort to schedule family events and appointments during non-school hours.  When absences are necessary, parents should call the school on the day of the absence or send a note when the child returns.  Please be specific in regards to the reason for the absence – using ‘illness’ or ‘sick’ is not acceptable.  When absences extend to 5 or more consecutive school days, parents must arrange for an Independent Study contract. 

 

However, even an excused absence translates into lost revenue for our school.  State financing for schools is based upon average daily attendance, or ADA. 

 

For example, for each daily absence, Juan Cabrillo loses approximately $46 in state revenue.  If only one child were to be absent in each classroom on a particular day, we would lose well over $550 for that single day.  District wide, if absences were reduced by only 50 students per day, the District would gain an additional $414,000 in state revenue for the year.  These numbers are significant and absences are negatively impacting the budgets that support your child’s education. 

 

WHY IT’S NOT OK TO BE LATE TO SCHOOL
Tardiness contributes to lost learning.  When a child arrives late to class, he/she begins the day behind, having missed the teacher’s opening instructions for the day.  At Juan Cabrillo, school beings promptly at 8:10 am, and there is no ‘grace period.’  The children are expected to be in the classroom when the bell rings, ready to begin their day.  Students who arrive at school late miss out on:

  • talking to their teacher before school
  • playing with other children before school
  • organization time
  • roll call and lunch orders
  • learning time
  • hearing what’s happening for the day

In addition, students who arrive late are often unsure about what they have to do in the lesson.  They may arrive at their classroom and find that their class has moved to another location or gone to a lesson with a specialist and then waste additional time locating the group.  Most importantly, latecomers miss out on essential reading, writing and math lessons and find that learning becomes disjointed and difficult.

 

PARENT TIPS FOR IMPROVING SCHOOL ATTENDANCE

  • no TV on school mornings
  • teach your child to set and use their own alarm clock
  • choose clothes the night before
  • have schoolwork and lunch ready and laid out – ready to go
  • bathe or shower in the evening
  • go to bed 10 minutes earlier and get up 10 minutes earlier
  • help your child relax before bedtime with a story, instead of TV or computer/games
  • when your child is ready for school on time, remember to let him/her know how much this helps the entire family

 

Remember, research shows that students achieve more when they attend school regularly and arrive on time.  In addition, schools lose valuable funding whenever students are absent.  There are no longer any ‘excused absences’ as far as state funding is concerned.  Our District only collects state funding for students who are physically in school on a given day.