Celebrating Parents In The Attendance Process

PS 171Q has been working hard to increase students’ daily attendance by informing parents about the importance of students attending school on a daily basis, and incentivizing both students and parents. On Friday, November 15th, PS 171Q & Zone 126 hosted a breakfast to celebrate the families of children who have demonstrated improvement in attendance from the previous school year. These students had been identified as chronically absent during the 2018-2019 school year, meaning they had been absent for 18 or more days over the course of the year.

As Community School Director, I analyzed the data to find out which students and families we were going to honor and then sent special invitations home to parents in addition to making phone calls to encourage parents to join us. In total, we had about 20 family members attend, and we all enjoyed a delicious hot breakfast together as a community. Ms. Stone honored these students’ family members with certificates recognizing their commitment and dedication to their children.

PS 171Q and the Zone 126 staff recognize that teamwork is required to make strides in overall attendance and student performance; we will not be able to achieve our goals without the cooperation of students and their families, teachers and all school staff. We look forward to holding more of these celebrations during the year as we continue to tackle chronic absenteeism.