New Tools for Improving Attendance in Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten

credit: brighthorizonsfoundation.org

The U.S. Department of Education's Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Mid-Atlantic has partnered with the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) to provide support of their initiative called Go-Learn-Grow: Improving the School Attendance of New Jersey's Youngest Learners.

NJDOE and REL Mid-Atlantic created the toolkit, Strategies for Improving Attendance in Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten: Toolkit for Districts, Schools, and Early Childhood Providers, with resources and handouts to support districts, schools, and early childhood providers in improving school attendance in pre-kindergarten and kindergarten.

The goals of the materials include: understanding the importance of attendance in early grades, encouraging schools to gather and include data on preschool students when reporting chronic absenteeism, helping schools collect information from families to help identify reasons for absenteeism in early grades, and improving attendance in pre-kindergarten and kindergarten based on the identified challenges using research-based strategies. Read the Entire Article