Dear Team Cougar Families,
One of our school/ministry/division goals this year is to ensure that every student attends school regularly.
Showing up day in and day out for school has a powerful impact on our students reading and math success. Regular
attendance has a key impact as early as kindergarten and continuing through high school. As families, you play a
key role in ensuring your children/our students get to school safely every day. You also play a key role in helping
students understand why attendance is so important for success in school and in life as they prepare for their
future/real life job expectations.
We realize some absences are unavoidable due to health problems or other circumstances. But, we also know that
when students miss too much school— regardless of the reason – it can cause them to fall behind academically.
Your child is less likely to succeed if he or she is chronically absent—which means missing
20 or more days over the course of an entire school year. Research shows:
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Children chronically absent in kindergarten and 1 st grade are much less likely to read at grade level by the
end of 3rd grade.
By 6th grade, chronic absence is a proven early warning sign for students at risk for dropping out of school.
By 9th grade good attendance can predict graduation rates even better than 8 th grade test scores.
Absences can add up quickly. A child is chronically absent if he or she misses just two days every month!!
Cougar Strong attendance--going to school regularly matters!
We want to team up with you to set our Cougars up for success! We don’t want your child to fall behind in school
and get discouraged. You can help by ensuring your child is at school every day and arrives on time. Below is a
list of tips to help families support regular attendance:
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Make sure your children keep a regular bedtime and establish a morning routine.
Lay out clothes and pack backpacks the night before.
Ensure your children go to school every day unless they are truly sick
Avoid scheduling vacations or doctor’s appointments when school is in session.
Talk to teachers and counselors for advice if your children feel anxious about going to school.
Develop back up plans for getting to school if something comes up. Call on a family member, neighbor, or
another parent to take your child to school.
Please let us know how we can best support you and your children so that they can show up for school on time every
day. We want our Cougars to give their best and be successful in school and in life!
To support regular attendance, our Cougar SCC Team have partnered with us to provide incentives for our Cougars
to strive for perfect attendance each month. Please see the following information outlining the SCC incentive
program.
All Central School Students will be given an attendance certificate (to be kept in their classroom portfolio for the
school year). The 10 school months will be listed around the edge of the certificate and each month, students with
perfect attendance will be given a cougar sticker for that month. Students with perfect attendance will be entered
into a monthly attendance draw. Each month, the SCC will award one prize pack to the winner of the perfect
attendance draw. It was very important to Team Cougar SCC and staff that students had a new opportunity each
month to aim for perfect attendance as we know life happens and there are unavoidable events where students need
to miss school.
The SCC wanted to select prizes that would reward the family as well—as we know it is a family effort to ensure
students attend regularly. The winner of the draw will get to choose from a variety of prize packs (valued at
$30.00). Family Prize Pack options are listed below and draws will be done at the end of each month, beginning in
October and continuing to June.
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Bowling
Cinema Twin movie pack
Pizza night
Bronco game night
Swim passes
We are excited to partner with you to ensure our Cougars value regular attendance and are set up
for success at school and in life!! Here’s to COUGAR STRONG attendance! We look forward
to seeing the impact regular attendance has on our Cougars!
Attendance: Let’s Do The Math!
Kindergarten to Grade 3
2 Days Absent
X10 months
X10 years
70-80 days missed=Almost half a year missed!
Kindergarten to Grade 9
2 Days Absent
X10 months
X10 years
200 days missed=Over one year of school missed!
Pre-Kindergarten to Grade 12
2 Days missed
X10 months
X15 years
300 days missed=Almost 1.5 years of school missed!
Missing 20 Days of school in one year adds up to:
30 hours less of Reading Instruction
20 hours less of Math Instruction