September is National Attendance Awareness Month

Good attendance is an important part of a student’s academic success. High school students who frequently miss school are more likely to drop out, and students of all ages are more engaged in learning if they are consistently present in school. Students who are chronically absent – defined as missing 10 percent or more of the school year – are more at risk academically, regardless of whether the absences are excused or unexcused. Here in Colorado, attendance also guides the state’s education laws and policies. Because attendance is so important, September has been designated as National Attendance Awareness Month.

The Colorado Department of Education (CDE) has issued a fact sheet for Attendance Awareness Month. Here you can find Colorado attendance data, information on chronic absenteeism and truancy, and links to resources on family engagement, early warning signs, and school health centers. The fact sheet references two documents, CDE’s Strategic Plan and Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) Plan, which provide more insight on student attendance and how it is used in state education policy.

In our library you can find many additional resources on student attendance, including historical statistics. Colorado schools conduct an official attendance count in October; you can read more about it in CDE’s Student October Count Audit Resource Guide. CDE has also produced a “mini-guide” on Supporting Attendance Through After School Programming. For more information and statistics, search our library’s online catalog.