Why is school attendance important?

Attendance is a very important piece to your child's potential success in school.  If your child needs to miss school, please contact the attendance line at 763-552-6310.  Please give the reason for the absence.

Did you know that CMS is required to send home letters when a student has 3 or more unexcused absences and/or 7 or more of any absences?  Students that have 10 or more any absences may be required to provide a doctor's note.

Why is school attendance so important?

 Robert Balfanz and Hedy Nai-Lin Chang explore this question in their article titled "A Focus on Attendance is Key to Success."

Here are a few key pieces of that article:

Nationwide, 5 –7.5 million students are chronically absent each year, a problem that contributes to higher dropout rates and wider achievement gaps. We know that more than a million teenagers drop out of high school each year in the United States, and millions more fail to develop the language and learning skills needed to sustain themselves as adults, let alone live to their full potential.

Chronic absenteeism begins to rise in middle school and continues climbing through 12th grade. A Baltimore study found a strong relationship between sixth-grade attendance and on-time graduation rates. Chronic absence in middle school is one of the best indicators we have that a student will drop out later. A study in Utah found that students who were chronically absent in any year between eighth and 12th grades were 7.5 times more likely to drop out of high school

Most recently, an analysis by the National Assessment of Educational Progress found that absences had consequences for fourth- and eighth-graders: 56% of eighth-graders who performed at the advanced level in NAEP reading in 2011 had perfect attendance in the month before the test, compared with 39% of students who performed below the basic level; in contrast, nearly one in five eighth-grade students at the basic level and more than one in four below basic in reading had missed three or more days in the previous month.

To read more go here:  A Focus on Attendance is Key to Success

For more information on Minnesota truancy laws go here:  MN Truancy Laws

Let's have a great year at CMS!