School Incentives For Attendance: 8 Ways To Motivate Students

Student attendance is one of the major challenges parents and teachers are currently facing. In the era of social media, for many children and teens, going to school can be difficult. Approximately 8 million kids in the United States miss about a month of school every year.  Now, more than ever, student - teacher relationships are critically important. Teachers must strive to understand their students not only academically, but also about the student’s families and, as much as possible, about other parts of their personal lives. School counselors may also play a critical role in developing connections with their students so that they are aware of any issues that may be preventing them from attending classes. While there are many circumstances where one cannot attend school, for instance, when the child is sick, there are many opportunities for schools to positively impact student attendance.  

How To Motivate Students To Attend School?

School attendance rates involve many complicated factors and multiple variables. To successfully motivate students to attend school and motivate them to continue doing so requires a multi-faceted approach that includes short term and long term incentives, accountability, and partnership with parents.  

1. Have a good start

Loneliness and depression can be major reasons why students avoid school. Waking up early and going to school may be a tedious task for many. Feeling welcomed and valued at school can help - things such as greeting students with a smile and wishing them a good morning by their teachers will help motivate students.

2. Encourage interclass competition

Competition amongst classes is also a great motivation. Incentives such as a party for the class with the highest monthly attendance between sections and classes can motivate students to become more eager to attend class.  Friendly, interclass competitions also increase feelings of team and support as classmates are accountable to one another.

3. Incentive programs for attendance

There are several options for incorporating attendance incentives into the school year. These can be arranged within the school calendar to minimize disturbance to class time. The secret to success is to plan. Additionally, testing periods, school holidays, and teacher in-service days must all be considered.

Creating incentives for students that are motivating and appropriate can be a challenge.  For an incentive to work, it is important to make the incentive timely.  Offering only a yearlong incentive, no matter how big, will not be motivating for most students, because it is so far away.  Layering incentive timing and size of rewards helps.  Small daily awards such as a high five from the principal, weekly rewards, lunch with a teacher, and monthly incentives like extra free time at recess, can be included with the big incentives like picnics and field trips.  Focus your incentives on progress, not perfection.  Principals' motivational calls and social media posts might also encourage parents to assist with their children's school attendance.

4. Larger, 6-monthly reward system

Larger rewards such as a picnic or a field trip for pupils who maintain perfect attendance can be issued at different intervals during the year. To help promote the importance of good attendance and keep motivation high, field trip flyers and reminders should be visible throughout the school year. An outdoor lunch party to the classroom with the highest attendance percentage for the year can also encourage students. All of these incentives, which have been arranged ahead of time, will motivate pupils to attend school daily.

5. System of friends

Friends can play a major role in influencing anyone’s life - especially for students. This campaign encourages youngsters to 'buddy up' with someone who has good attendance. In this way, a child who has a poor attendance percentage can increase his or her attendance. According to studies, missing 10% of school, or around 18 days in most school systems, has a detrimental impact on a student's academic achievement.

Over some time, if they develop a good friendship, the child with poor attendance shall become motivated to join classes. To boost this attitude, the teacher can even introduce concepts of “brunch lunches” and school projects that the two kids need to do together.

6. Star chart

Parents can utilize star systems to help support and promote their children's attendance. The star system can also be utilized as a whole-class project, such as a weekly class competition. The graph can be placed in a prominent location, such as the hallway. The 'star class' is the one with the greatest attendance rate. In fact, the 'star class' can be recognized in several ways, including assemblies, class snacks, and so on. This program works effectively with students in the primary grade.

7. Attendance competitions

Schools can experiment with prize-based competitions for individual students and/or entire classes. Some schools, for example, offer attendance cups, reward points, and personal and family awards like meal vouchers, movie tickets, individual/class rewards, trips, and so on.

Attendance information should be displayed. Schools might employ specialized attendance display boards or visual display systems to help raise attendance awareness. The statistics can be displayed in high-traffic areas of the school, such as reception areas. Information regarding overall school attendance as well as statistics on attendance rates in a class/year group might be shown in a prominent location.

They could also include information on parents' and students' expectations for attendance rates, details about where a parent can get help, and information about penalty notices, among other things. A 'Roll of Honor' may be presented to pupils having the best attendance for the week, and so on. It is possible to consider incorporating kids in the upkeep of the boards.

8. Involve parents

School officials and instructors must communicate with kids' parents and guardians, particularly those whose children are at risk of poor attendance. Parents must understand the significance of school attendance and be aware that their children's schools will help them. Also, schools can provide free uniforms for students, offer breakfast programs, and even try to install a washer and dryer in the school if families are unable to send their children to school due to a shortage of clean clothing.

To overcome any impediments to school attendance, communication between the school and family is critical. It is more probable that those students with poor attendance will attend school from Day 1 to Day 180 if administrators, instructors, and staff demonstrate that they want their pupils to be there no matter what.

What Is the Importance of School Attendance?

Attendance in the classroom is a powerful determinant of student achievement. As per the US Department of Education, inconsistent attendance is a stronger predictor of whether students would drop out before graduation compared to test results.  Chronic absences by the sixth grade become a leading sign of a student's intention to drop out of high school.

The link between attendance and turnover rates has far-reaching consequences that extend further than the classrooms. Students who do not complete their high school education are much more vulnerable to poverty, have poor health, and become engaged in the judicial system than their counterparts who do.

When kids miss school, they don't get the constant teaching they need to learn basic abilities. Children in the early grades are especially vulnerable to falling behind in basic reading abilities, which would have a cascading effect on future learning.

In addition, poor attendance might have a severe impact on socio-emotional development. Students who are consistently absent throughout their early years of schooling may not gain important school preparation skills such as critical thinking, cognitive skills, and innovative thinking and may lag behind their classmates in terms of social-emotional development. Excessive absences are also linked to lower standardized test results, which are used to examine basic abilities and ideas.

In a Nutshell

Students are motivated by peer and institutional recognition, such as certificates or assemblies, extended recess time, homework passes, or even dancing in the halls. Inquire with your students about what incentive would be relevant and attractive. Also, it's not a good idea to encourage kids to come to the classroom when they're unwell. In fact, perfect attendance isn't always the aim. Therefore, students should be encouraged to improve their attendance rather than merely having flawless attendance records.