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Attendance

 

Attendance matters - missing just 2 days per month can affect your academic success

 

STUDENT ATTENDANCE

Attendance matters!  Daily attendance and engagement in learning is essential to student success at all grade levels.  Colorado law directly connected to attendance focuses on compulsory school attendance, truancy and school finance. Important student attendance definition of rates and terms include:
 

  • Truancy: Truancy is defined as an unexcused absence.  The rate is calculated by dividing the reported Total Student Days Unexcused Absences by the Total Student Days Possible.
  • Habitually Truant (Student Count): A student is counted as habitually truant if the student has four unexcused absences in one month and/or 10 absences in one school year.
  • Chronically Absent: A student absent 10 percent or more of the days enrolled during the school year is chronically absent. All absences are included – unexcused, excused and suspensions.  The rate is the percentage of students enrolled who are chronically absent.

 


WHAT IS CHRONIC ABSENTEEISM:
In the past, only unexcused student absences were tracked (truancy) in districts giving a false understanding of how absences affected student success.  DCSD considers excused and unexcused absences as well as suspension days when calculating chronic absences.  A student is chronically absent when he or she misses 10 percent of schooling throughout the year-around 2 days per month.  

 

Truancy vs Chronic Absentism
WHY IT MATTERS

Too often, parents, students and sometimes teachers don't realize how quickly absences, even parent-excused absences, can add up to academic trouble.  Chronic absenteeism is not just students who are skipping school, but students who miss school often for various reasons such as vacation or doctor appointments.   Chronic absenteeism in kindergarten, and even PreK, can predict lower test scores, poor attendance and retention in later grades, especially if the problem persists for more than a year.  

Research shows that missing as little as 2-3 days per month can translate into third graders unable to master reading, sixth graders failing courses and ultimately, teens dropping out of high school.  

EVERY STUDENT SUCCEEDS ACT (ESSA):


As part of Colorado’s state ESSA plan, chronic absenteeism rates are collected as part of the CDE School Discipline and Attendance data submission. The submission includes the reporting of the number of chronically absent students by school, overall and disaggregated by ethnicity/race, gender, special education, English language learner status, homeless status and free-and-reduced lunch status.  To learn more about ESSA in Colorado, please click here.

COLORADO ATTENDANCE DATA:


Colorado collects and reports on attendance data in four main categories at the school, district and state level: attendance rate, truancy, habitually truant, and chronic absenteeism (at the district and state level only).  See how your school or district compares to state data on the Attendance Information webpage.

 

WHAT IS DCSD DOING ???

This year, Academic Systems and DC Student Assistance teams are working to build the capacity of schools to address attendance issues more comprehensively. 

Attendance Teams: Attendance teams are comprised of various individuals from the school, including administrators, counselors, support staff, teachers, health aids, etc. The team meets on a regular basis to review attendance data in order to identify students to recognize for good or improved attendance as well as determine supports and interventions for chronically absent students. 

Home Visits: District volunteers visit the homes of chronically absent students throughout the school year to determine how the district can support the family, if needed.

Professional Development: Every other month, we train deans and assistant principals in the best practices related to attendance.

Information Technology: The Information Technology team has created prioritized reports to allow schools to access chronic absence data regularly to better understand trends readily.

WHAT YOU CAN DO AS A PARENT:

  • Talk to your child about why going to school daily is critical and essential unless they are sick. If your child seems reluctant to go to school, find out why and work with the teacher or school to find ways to create excitement about going to school.
  • Establish and stick to the basic routines (going to bed early, waking up on time, etc.) that will help your child develop the habit of on-time attendance.
  • Come up with backup plans for who to turn to (another family member, a neighbor, or fellow parents) to help you get your child to school if something arises.
  • Avoid extended vacations that require children to miss school. Try to schedule vacations with the school calendar. The same goes for doctor’s appointments.

 

MORE INFORMATION:

For more information on how attendance matters, visit www.attendanceworks.org.


Colorado Attendance Laws

School Attendance Act – Residence of child (§22-1-102, C.R.S.)

  • Every public school shall be open for the admission of all children, between the ages of five and twenty-one years, residing in that district without the payment of tuition.

School Attendance Act – Compulsory School Attendance (§22-33-104, C.R.S.)

  • Requires that each child between the ages of six and 17 shall attend public school unless otherwise excused. 

Standardizing Truancy Reporting and Expanding the Resources (§22-33-104, C.R.S.)

  • Requires the Colorado State Board of Education to adopt guidelines for the standardized calculation of unexcused absences of students from school.

School Attendance Law of 1963 - Truancy Court (§19-1-104, C.R.S.)

  • Allows a criminal justice agency investigating a matter under the "School Attendance Law of 1963" to seek, prior to adjudication, disciplinary and truancy information from the juvenile's school.

Truancy enforcement (§22-33-107, C.R.S.)

  • Requires school district to have policy for a truancy plan with the goal of assisting the child to remain in school.

FINANCE ACT OF 1994 (§22-54-103, C.R.S.)

  • “Pupil enrollment" means the number of pupils enrolled on the pupil enrollment count day within the applicable budget year, as evidenced by the actual attendance of such pupils prior to said date.