School attendance is essential to academic success, but too often students, parents and schools do not realize how quickly absences-excused as well as unexcused-can add up to academic trouble.

The impact hits low income students, who most depend on school for providing opportunities to learn, particularly hard.

Truancy has always been a concern for educators, but it is growing rapidly in all types of schools. Worse, as students progress through school, and the work becomes more demanding, truancy increases dramatically. Most research shows that isolated, piecemeal approaches don’t work to improve attendance. It takes a school and community-wide effort that attempts to monitor attendance, get parent and community cooperation, improve school climate, and employ sanctions in a strategic, developmental manner.