Our community school teams are paying close attention to strong school attendance at each stage of school because it is such an important factor in student achievement. As early as preschool, chronic absence can present challenges for long-term academic success. Students with lower preschool attendance tend to have lower kindergarten readiness scores, and students who continue to be chronically absent in grades K-1, are much less likely to read proficiently in third grade.

Staff at the Fairmont-Samara campus in the Bronx are helping families develop healthy school attendance practices early on. They invited pre-k families to spend the morning in their children’s classrooms, and help each student build their own book from scratch, showing both children and their families that showing up to school is both fun and critical to a student’s learning. Together, parents and staff can continue to make sure our youngest learners are getting the most out of their early childhood classroom education by attending preschool every day.