Attendance Matters!
Absenteeism hurts the student.
- Students who are frequently absent fall behind in academics and miss important socialization concepts that enhance their ability to understand and follow directions or, ultimately, plan for the future.
- High school dropouts are two-and-a half times more likely to be on welfare than high school graduates and are almost twice as likely to be unemployed, according to a U.S. Department of Education 1996 finding.
- Studies show that truancy frequently leads to criminal activity, drug use, and incarceration.
- Research has found a clear link between academic failure in the early grades and delinquent behavior in adolescence (Howell 1995).
- According to recent statistics, about 50 percent of prison inmates are high school dropouts and cost society well over $240 billion in lost wages and taxes over their lifetimes.