Studies show when kids miss more than 10 days, or 5 percent of the school year, their likelihood of them being on track for graduation drops almost 40 percent.
“When they’re here every day, they feel like they’re apart of the school,” said Deborah Beavers, eighth grade teacher at Nathan Hale School in Cleveland.
That’s why CMSD and the Browns have teamed for the ‘get to school’ program.
“It is an incentive program, and it’s just to push them to come to school. It’s made a difference overall in our school. Our goal is 93 percent here at Nathan Hale, and we were above that throughout most of the year," said Beavers.
With zero absences, eighth grader at Nathan Hale School, Virginia Philips, has been able to reap the benefits of the program.
“We had a fun day in the gym with bounce houses. Also the kids that had perfect attendance all year, never missed a day, went to the Cavs game,” she said.
Phillips said she hates missing school.
“I freak out when I miss school or even if I’m almost late…it seems like if you miss a day it’s like you missed a whole lot of information from your classes and I don’t like being behind.”
But her classmate Robert Elam, has been the complete opposite.
“It’s sometimes a bit of a struggle because I have obstacles, I have people that don’t like me and can get in my emotions, then I’ll be ready to fight them,” Elam said.
He said program has given him the push he's needed.
“At first, I usually have my alarm clock set because if I don’t I’ll oversleep…and so that’s become more easier for me to get to school.”
Both Phillips and Elam tell me being at school every day is helping them reach their personal and academic future goals.
“Having a good record with attendance and having good grades it will affect my learning because John Hayes is like a school where you gotta really work hard” Phillips said.
“My attendance is great…it’s been real good for me because now I get better grades and I’m on the honor roll and trying to strive for that 4.0,” said Elam.
Within in just it’s first year, the district has seen a 10 percent increase in overall attendance--their ultimate goal being to improve reading and math test scores for students.
They plan to continue the program next year and hopefully many years to come.
