Ossining Superintendent Joins National Campaign to Prioritize School Attendance

Superintendent Raymond Sanchez is one of more than 200 superintendents nationwide who joined a Call to Action that emphasizes the importance of students’ school attendance.

The Call to Action is sponsored by seven national education organizations that led the Attendance Awareness Month campaign in September. By participating in the Call to Action, Mr. Sanchez and his colleagues commit to reducing chronic student absences, working with community partners to improve attendance, using attendance data to identify chronically absent children, and intervening to make sure absences do not add up.

“The consequences of missing too much school are severe,” Mr. Sanchez said. “They include falling behind academically and being at a higher risk for dropping out of high school. It’s up to all of us – parents, teachers, medical professionals, nonprofit groups, community members and others – to help keep our children on track.”

The education groups took out a full-page ad in Education Week that includes the names of all the participating superintendents and districts.

The Ossining School District has been conducting its own campaign surrounding the importance of attendance for the past year, including messages on social media and emails to parents. School officials will identify students who miss 10 percent or more school days and set attendance goals for principals and schools, particularly those that need improvement.

The district is calling on parents to make good attendance a habit beginning at home, enforce children’s bedtimes and other routines, and avoid taking vacations while school is in session.

Poor attendance is a key factor in why students struggle academically. While absenteeism is often considered a high school problem, research shows that one in 10 kindergarteners and first-graders – as many as 7.5 million students nationwide – miss nearly a month of school each year in excused and unexcused absences. By sixth grade, chronic absences become a warning sign that a student might drop out of high school, according to Attendance Works, one of the groups sponsoring the Call to Action.

The other organizations involved in the campaign are America’s Promise Alliance, the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, Get Schooled, Healthy Schools Campaign, Points of Light and United Way Worldwide.

Other school districts that are participating in the Call to Action include New York City, Los Angeles and Miami-Dade County. Six New York districts are part of the initiative.