Here are the ideas I received for improving school attendance. Thank
you.
* The school gives semester tests. They are not designed to
"flunk"
anyone, but basically to be a review of the material covered. Any
student who has not missed more than three days (not counting school
activities) does not have to take the semester exam. All other
absences, excused or not, apply towards this three days.....illness,
doctor appointments, funerals etc. My late husband's cousin teaches
there, and three weeks ago, the family business sold out at auction. I
asked Kurt where his kids were (all of their cousins were there), and
he was telling me about this policy, and how his kids didn't want to
miss for the auction because they didn't know if they'd be sick or not
later in the year.
He says it has REALLY cut down on the absences in his school district.
BTW, a few years ago, this same school district implemented a policy
where the principal has the ultimate say on whether or not an absence
is excused, not the parents.....that has helped too.
Kaye
Kaye Banzhaf
Media Specialist/Technology Coordinator
Medicine Valley Public Schools
POB 9
* We do several things:
1. If you only miss 1 day (that means 30 minutes of that class) you are
exempt from final exams as long as you are passing the class.
2. After you miss 6 days, you must make the class up on Saturday. We
have a 98% attendance rate. Good luck/
Dianne Anderson
* We have held pizza parties for the class with the best
attendance for
the grading period. Also have had drawings for large "door prizes" from
names of those with perfect attendance for grading period. Items like
boom box or movie passes or gift certificate to a mall.
Ann Jantzen, Media Specialist
South Central Jr. Sr. H.S.
6675 E. Highway 11 SE
Elizabeth, IN 47117
jantzena@south.shcsc.k12.in.us
* Every month, my principal awards a certificate to the top 3
classes in attendance. She reads the names of the classes over the
loudspeaker during morning announcements.
Alma Ramos
Library/Media Cluster
P.S. 112, Brooklyn, NY
sunshinealma@aol.com
* Our middle school is sending students with few absences and a
certain
grade point average to an amusement park for the day. We live about 3
hours from the closest one but our students are used to riding buses
long distances. Teachers say students are really working to receive this
reward.
Theresa Bermingham
K-12 Library/Media
Big Piney School Dist.
Big Piney, WY 83113
tbermingham@bp.k12.wy.us
* Riverside has a wonderful incentive program, led by a local
automobile
dealership. Seniors with perfect (or almost perfect) attendance get
their
names put in a drawing for a new car. It is given at awards night at the
end
of the year. The dealership must give cars to half a dozen high schools
in
town. Since then, other businesses have jumped in and there are
computers,
DVD players, MP3 players, etc. for the ones who meet the attendance
requirement in every grade 9-12. After the first few years and having
to
NOT give away cars to the winners, we learned that all names that go
into
the car drawing must prove that they have insurance and a license.
Kathy Bowman
Library Media Teacher
Poly High School
Riverside, CA 92506
kbowman@poly.rusd.k12.ca.us
*
When I worked at an elementary school, students who got perfect
attendance
for a nine weeks, semester, or for the year, were entered into a drawing
for
a bike at the end of the year. Some kids' names, of course, weren't
entered
because of attendance; however, kids who never missed a day all year
were in
7 times (once for each quarter, once for each semester, and once for the
year), which increased their chances. I believe WalMart donated the
bike,
and it seemed to help motivate elementary students.
Please keep me anonymous if you post a hit. Thanks--
Kathy Kadavy
Kingfisher High School LMS
Kingfisher, OK
kkadavy@hotmail.com (home)
kkadavy@kingfisher.k12.ok.us (school)
* Each individual teacher has come up with incentives for
students with
perfect attendance in his/her class. This ranges from dropping a low
grade
to a homework pass to an extra hall pass etc. In the library we are
forgiving fines of anyone who had perfect attendance during the 3rd
quarter.
Our principal also got one of the movie theatres to donate free passes
for
kids with PA. Additionally the principal bought some DVD players, a
playstation, and several other things along those lines and everyone
with
perfect attendance gets their name in the hat for those. One kid with
perfect attendance will get to shave our principal's head.
Also, our seniors have senior privileges. Any senior whose attendance
is less than
95.9% has their privileges stripped.
Pam Lattin
Librarian
Hallsville High School
Hallsville, TX
* At my school, we have a special "Gum Chewing Day." Any student
who has perfect attendance and is not tardy for school, or doesn't leave
school early for the month, gets to chew gum on a special day. They do
not chew at lunch, recess, specials, etc. They bring a pack of gum and
chew in their regular classrooms. If there are students who can't chew
gum due to braces, etc. they get to bring mints or something similar.
This is something we decided to try to improve student attendance. At
first some of the teachers were skeptical, but most if not all now agree
it is going well. Our attendance has improved, as well as our tardiness
and early dismissal problems. We even have our usual parents who want to
beat the dismissal crowds and pick up early asking if this will effect
gum chewing. When they are told it will eliminate their child from the
special day, they agree to keep them in school and wait until dismissal
time to pick them up. Who would have thought gum would have worked!!!!
We made a large poster and placed it near the cafeteria where all would
see everyday. It has space for total enrollment, number absent and %
present for each day. It looks like a large thermometer and has an
arrow pointing to the appropriate % number. Of course, it is updated
daily. We made it a point to make a big deal out of it while the kids
were standing in line waiting to enter the cafeteria every day. Believe
it or not, our attendance increased by 2-4 %. We did not do anything
else to make it increase, just talked to the kids about being there and
bragging when our number was high. We average 97% present everyday.
That is pretty good.
We are an elementary school. It might not work so well for older kids.
We also give certificates for perfect attendance at the end of the year,
and every child who does not miss a day in the 9 week grading period
gets his/her name placed in a drawing for a bicycle. One bike every 9
weeks per school. This is funded by a local industry. But we were
doing these things before the poster idea and our attendance was not
that great. Go figure.
Frances Murphy
Media Specialist
Mason Elementary School
Laurel, MS
1. Classes who have perfect attendance for 1 week get entered into a
drawing for a pizza party. The drawing was held monthly.
2. Special guests were scheduled at the end of the nine weeks for
students who had perfect attendance. We had authors, illustrators, high
school students, etc. visit with the students.
3. Showed a movie to students who had perfect attendance for the nine
weeks grading period.
1. Party at end of the testing window. Only students who took the math
and reading sections of the tests are invited. Party is complete with
DJ, cake and ice cream. Party is provided by Adopt-a-school partners.
2, FREE t-shirt. Students who take the math and reading sections and
are present everyday for testing with receive a FREE t-shirt that says:
"I survived STATE testing!"
3. PTA has provided 2 gift baskets (one boy, one girl) valued at $50
each. Every student who takes both reading and math sections of the
standardized tests will have their names entered in a drawing for the
baskets.
We made a large poster and placed it near the cafeteria where all would
see everyday. It has space for total enrollment, number absent and %
present for each day. It looks like a large thermometer and has an
arrow pointing to the appropriate % number. Of course, it is updated
daily. We made it a point to make a big deal out of it while the kids
were standing in line waiting to enter the cafeteria every day. Believe
it or not, our attendance increased by 2-4 %. We did not do anything
else to make it increase, just talked to the kids about being there and
bragging when our number was high. We average 97% present everyday.
That is pretty good.
We are an elementary school. It might not work so well for older kids.
We also give certificates for perfect attendance at the end of the year,
and every child who does not miss a day in the 9 week grading period
gets his/her name placed in a drawing for a bicycle. One bike every 9
weeks per school. This is funded by a local industry. But we were
doing these things before the poster idea and our attendance was not
that great. Go figure.
Frances Murphy
Media Specialist
Mason Elementary School
Laurel, MS
Mary Jo Eldridge, Librarian
Everman Junior High, Everman, TX
meldridge@eisd.org
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