Attendance can mean more than most students think it does.
Studies show that students with lower attendance rates in high school tend to have lower chances of graduation and success in college. In fact, students who miss more than 10 days of school in a single school year have 20% less of a chance of graduation than students who don’t.
The same students have 25 percent less of a chance of even enrolling in any type of college after high school.
At Pattonville High School, there has been improvement in rate of attendance recently. In fact, Pattonville School District boasts a 95 percent attendance rate for the 2012-2013 school year, the highest in the past six years. However, efforts are still being made to improve individual habits.
One of these efforts includes the creation of a minimum attendance requirement in order to go to functions such as the Homecoming dance. In the case of Homecoming, students must have a 90 percent or greater attendance rate to purchase a ticket. A student with any attendance rate lower than this will not have that privilege.
This new implementation aims to guide the students at the high school level toward more consistent attendance rates throughout the school year. While the Homecoming dance serves as the first event to be monitored by this attendance requirement, it will not be the last.
Later in the year, some events will have similar requirements of attendance records. Most notably, the attendance requirement will show up again when the time for Pattonville’s Prom comes around.
Keeping this in mind, students will find it beneficial to keep up their attendance rates if they hope to attend events such as these in the future.