Do you remember the Best Buy Homeroom Attendance Challenge? Did your homeroom win the challenge? This program, as well as others, was part of the administration’s recent push to increase attendance at Niles North, and it’s paying off.

Daily attendance records show increases by as much as three percent (3%)  compared to last year during the holiday months of November, December and January. These months have traditionally been hardest on the school’s attendance record. With families traveling for the holidays, North has historically struggled to keep students in class. Rates in November and December tend to be the lowest of any months, and have averaged around 93 percent.

Remarkably, this year attendance during November hit 95.92 percent. That is a big difference compared to last year’s 93 percent average in November. With around 2000 students attending Niles North, that is a difference of about 58 students in class per day. And results for other months have been similar. The only month that saw no increase in attendance this year was October. But every other month has increased its average daily attendance by at least 1.5 percent.

What led to this huge increase in attendance? According to assistant principal of operations Keith Robinson, in addition to the Best Buy Attendance Challenge (which will be repeated later this year), three factors have contributed to this success. First, Niles North has hired an attendance advocate, Jeff Gordon. Part of Gordon’s job is to compile data in order to identify students who are chronically truant so that the deans can work with the students to solve the problem. In past years the deans have had to identify truants. Because the attendance advocate has taken over this responsibility, the deans now have more time to help students get back on track.

The second factor has involved vacations. The current school policy stands that if a student misses school more than four days in a row, informing the attendance office is not enough. If the student is sick, a doctor’s note is required. However, if the absence is due to a family trip, a written request must be submitted to principal Dr. Ryan McTague in advance. If McTague declines to excuse the student on any of the requested days, then the student will not be marked excused on those days, regardless of whether or not a parent calls the school.

Third, the administration, and in particular, Dr. McTague, has worked hard to inform parents about the importance of being at school. As Robinson puts it, “You can make up the material, but there is no replacement for the enrichment and learning experienced in a classroom”. McTague has been emphasizing this attitude at parent meetings, in his newsletter and through many other outlets. The administration believes that it is just as important to inform parents as it is to inform students, about the value in attending school .

What does the school get out of this boost? Some of the funding the school gets from the state is connected to attendance rates, but Robinson best explains the school’s biggest motive: “Because college readiness is so important to our community, we need students in their seats, learning.”