School attendance is essential

Throughout the history of high school in America, students have faced similar struggles while trying to succeed. Having to juggle friendships, school work and real life can be challenging for any student, and these things can take their toll in many different ways.

While life looks different to every student, one thing always remains true — that success in high school is built on how a student manages the balance between life and school. This balance can be seen in different student behaviors, but is most present in a student’s attendance record. While it may seem like a given that attendance is an important part of education, the consequences of poor attendance may run deeper than students, and parents alike, may expect.

Attendance is an incredibly important part of school, but a perfect attendance score is a difficult thing to get. With the current state of the world, the phrase “life happens” has never been more true. Different challenges appear every day, and life only ever becomes more difficult to manage as more and more changes happen.

Sickness, funerals, family events and emergencies all happen, and missing school may be needed in order to handle what life throws at a student, but missing school begins to become a problem if a student’s absence is too frequent. Poor attendance is one of the largest “silent killers” of a successful school career, and stands as a difficult hurdle for the eight million students nationwide who are at-risk in school over for their attendance.

There are two types of poor attendance, chronic absence or truancy. Chronic absence is when a student misses 10% or more of a school semester, and this state may cause a lot of trouble for the student’s education. Truancy is similar, but the days the student misses are unexcused absences, or absences without a note or reason to not be in school. Truancy is considered worse than chronic absence, but both of these may make a student’s school career very difficult. Poor attendance has been shown to lead to decreased grades, less student friendship, and a generally poor experience in school. Student attendance is not only important for the student, but the parent or guardian as well, as parents and guardians are legally responsible to help their student complete their school career, and poor attendance stands in the way of that happening.

With the endless research that has been done on the topic of attendance, the results have stated that attendance is one of the most important factors in a successful school career. Being present for class may be hard with life’s challenges, but being present is worth its weight in gold when education is concerned. While it may be unreasonable to tell every student to have a perfect attendance score, making an effort to be at school is needed to help a student succeed in their education.

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Editor’s note: Amanda Childs, social worker for Pea Ridge Schools, can be reached at achilds@ pearidgek12.com.