Did you know that 7 million kids miss more than a month of school each year?  This is a staggering statistic!  Getschooled.com recently published information on attendance research that they’ve been doing.  The link for the infographic is below.  It’s title, “Skipping to Nowhere” says it all.  Young people are skipping school, dropping out, and giving up on school and as a result, trading options and opportunities for limited choices and dead ends.  The information continues to shock—75% start skipping while in middle school, 46% skip once a week or more, and only 9% of them ever attend college. 

Possible solutions can be found toward the end of the infographic.  We need to let youth know that we notice when they are not at school.  We need to help them understand how important attending school is for their future.  We need to send our messages through the right messengers—the people who matter to students, like teachers, parents, celebrities, and athletes.  We also need to help youth make the connection between the here and now—the present and the future.  We need to step up and youth need to step up.  We need to change this trajectory.  At the beginning of the infographic it states, “Absenteeism issues plague almost every community in America.  It is not a problem facing only urban low income students; it is a problem facing middle class America - students and families who plan to go to college but simply are not in school enough to ensure they are prepared and ready to succeed once they get there.”  We need our youth to both show up and choose to be present in school.  Read more:

https://getschooled.com/system/assets/assets/202/original/skipping_to_nowhere_infographic.pdf?1346176934