Early Education Providers
Early education is vital to a child’s success.
Preschool is the ideal time to introduce children and families to the importance of consistent on-time attendance and to encourage strong attendance habits. A high-quality preschool program can build early literacy and math skills, as well as develop the social and emotional foundation children need to persist in school. But preschoolers only receive the full effect of these benefits if they show up for class regularly. What happens in preschool and early education can lay the foundation for good attendance habits in kindergarten and elementary school. The Why Attendance Matters handout on this page explains why early education providers should care about attendance and how they can establish good attendance habits from the start. Below are additional resources to help you take action.
Research documents that missing more than 10% of school, starting in preschool, compromises the capacity of even a strong preschool program to instill the skills necessary for reading readiness and other school readiness skills.
Educating and motivating parents and caregivers to promote attendance during the early childhood years is essential and a challenge. Integrating attendance research, strategies and discussion into parent/caregiver programs and family events empowers parents to recognize the benefits for their children and to do something about it.
Try these key resources for engaging families:
Nothing motivates a parent like a child! Engaging children in tracking their own attendance daily, and recognizing progress weekly helps motivate children AND parents to pay attention to attendance. Materials from the Perfectly Punctual Campaign offer a successful structure for how to engage children directly.
Use this tool to examine whether your program has the right policies and practice in place to improve student attendance. Create an opportunity for a team of key attendance stakeholders to take the assessment. Compare the answers. If differences in opinion about an item are significant, take the time to explore different perceptions and what that might mean for action steps.
The Attendance Works’ Early and Often toolkit helps high quality preschools engage and inform families so they are motivated to get their children to preschool every day possible.
The Chicago Office of Early Childhood Education developed this toolkit to help preschool programs promote good attendance.
Attendance Works developed a toolkit for integrating attendance into practices designed to smooth the transition to kindergarten, from home or preschool.