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Best Practices For Attendance Policies

How can we improve student attendance? Imagine you are a teacher who loves your job and wants to make a difference in your students’ lives. You prepare engaging lessons, create a positive classroom environment, and offer support and feedback to your students. Aside from that, you are passionate about your subject and eager to share your knowledge with your students.

But there is one problem- your students need to share your enthusiasm. Sadly, they often arrive late to class, miss important instructions, and disrupt the flow of the lesson. Sometimes, they skip school altogether, missing valuable learning opportunities and falling behind on their assignments. You feel they must show more interest, rarely participate in class discussions, and barely complete the minimum requirements.

And so, you are frustrated and worried! You may be wondering what you are doing wrong and what you can do to improve the situation. But you want your students to be punctual, attentive, and motivated. Also, you want them to enjoy learning and achieve their academic goals, stay in school, and graduate with confidence and skills.

But how can you make that happen? How can you increase student engagement and attendance in your classroom? How can you help them develop good habits of being on time and staying in school?

That’s what this article is all about. In this article, you will learn some research-based tips and strategies that will help you address the issue of student tardiness and absenteeism.

Effects of Being Late, Skipping, or Missing School on Students

You see, being late, skipping, or missing school can hurt your students in many ways, such as:

They miss essential stuff at the start of the school day or class.
Get less learning time than students who are on time.
Mess up the learning of other students and your teaching.
They feel like they don’t belong to the school or their friends.
Some may get into bad habits that can make them lose their studies.
They must improve their schoolwork, like projects, homework, and tests.
Also, they have lower self-confidence, motivation, and social skills.

So, what can you do to stop this problem? How can we improve student attendance? Below are some tips that can help you out.

Reasons Why Students are Late, Skip, or Miss School

But first, let us discuss the reasons why students are late, skip, or miss school, such as:

Anxiety. Some students fear going to school because of academic stress, social problems, bullying, or personal issues. They try to avoid school or come late to avoid their fears or worries.
Online games and social media. They may spend too much time playing online games or checking out social media sites. They lose track of time, go to bed late, or care more about their online stuff than their school stuff. Also, they use online games or social media to deal with stress or boredom.
Family problems. Some students have family issues that make it hard to attend school. They may face violence, divorce, poverty, drugs, or neglect at home. Also, they may have to look after their brothers or sisters or do chores that take their time and energy.
Chores. They have to do tasks that make them busy and tired. Moreover, they may have to cook, clean, wash dishes, or do laundry for their family. Some may also have to help with farming, gardening, or other ways to earn money. These chores may stop them from getting enough sleep, doing homework, or getting ready for school.

Tips for Teachers

Students actively participating in a classroom activity to foster engagement and reduce absenteeism. — Fostering student engagement to improve attendance and motivation.

So, how can we improve student attendance? To stop the abovementioned reasons from making your students late, skip, or miss school, you can use the following proven tips based on research:

Praise. You can use recognition to make your students feel good about being on time and coming to school. It can be spoken or written, specific or general, public or private. For example, you can say, “Great job for being on time today!” or write a note saying, “I’m proud of you for coming to school every day.” Praise can make your students feel better about themselves, more motivated, and more connected.

A teacher praising a student for excellent attendance with a certificate of achievement. — Praise and recognition: Key to improving student attendance.

Communication. Importantly, you can talk to your students and their parents often to find out why they are late, skip, or miss school. Furthermore, you can use phone calls, emails, letters, or home visits to build trust and friendship with your students and their families. In addition, you can give feedback, advice, and support to help your students overcome problems and improve their attendance.

A teacher and parent having a video call about student attendance and progress. — Open communication with parents enhances student attendance.

Incentives. You can use incentives to make your students want to be on time for school regularly. Incentives can be things you can touch or not for one student or a group of students for a short or a long time. Specifically, you can give stickers, certificates, prizes, extra points, or special rights to students who meet their attendance goals. Also, you can plan fun things, trips, or parties for classes with high attendance rates.

Students being rewarded for perfect attendance with certificates and stickers. — Incentives motivate students to maintain regular attendance.

Consequences. Lastly, you can use consequences to make your students want to be on time and attend school with a good reason. Consequences can be things that make sense or something that they will learn. But make sure to include your students or even the parents in creating rules on the consequences of the misbehavior. You can do this by asking first for their suggestions, adding your ideas, and letting them vote for the best idea to implement. With this, they would be aware and feel more responsible for their actions. For example, you can let students who are late do the work they missed, apologize to the class, or stay after school. You can also call the parents of the students who skip or miss school. However, use the consequences all the time, fairly and nicely.

A student completing missed work after school as part of the consequences for tardiness. — Fair and consistent consequences help improve student attendance.

Now, it’s time to put these tips and strategies into practice. Try them out in your classroom and see what works best for you and your students. Experiment with different approaches and adapt them to your specific context. Monitor the results and make adjustments as needed.

Conclusion

Remember, you are not alone in this journey. Indeed, you have the power and the resources to make a difference in your students’ lives. You have the passion and the skills to inspire them to learn and grow. Indeed, you have the opportunity and responsibility to help them achieve their potential!

So, what are you waiting for? Make your students show up on time and stay in school! They will thank you for it, and so will you! If you have any questions or comments on how can we improve student attendance, feel free to leave them below. Thanks for reading, and see you at the next one!