{"id":3643,"date":"2025-08-18T08:30:44","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T14:30:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mdek12.org\/communications\/?p=3643"},"modified":"2025-08-15T08:44:58","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T14:44:58","slug":"mde-encourages-schools-and-communities-to-recognize-attendance-awareness-month-in-september","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mdek12.org\/communications\/2025\/08\/18\/mde-encourages-schools-and-communities-to-recognize-attendance-awareness-month-in-september\/","title":{"rendered":"MDE encourages schools and communities to recognize Attendance Awareness Month in September"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEWS RELEASE
\n<\/strong>For Immediate Release: \u00a0August 18, 2025<\/p>\n

\"2<\/p>\n

MDE encourages schools and communities to recognize Attendance Awareness Month in September<\/strong><\/p>\n

JACKSON, Miss. \u2013 The Mississippi Department of Education urges all education stakeholders to recognize Attendance Awareness Month in September. Schools, districts and local organizations are encouraged to promote the benefits of students maintaining regular attendance at school and reducing chronic absenteeism.<\/p>\n

Chronic absenteeism is defined as missing 10% (18 days) of the school year for any reason, including excused and unexcused absences and suspensions. Students who miss two days of school each month of a school year are considered chronically absent. Research shows that students who are absent 2-4 days in September go on to miss nearly a month of school.<\/p>\n

Anyone interested in raising awareness about the importance of regular school attendance may utilize MDE\u2019s online Attendance Awareness Toolkit<\/u><\/a>, which includes resources from the agency\u2019s Every School Day Counts \u2013 Attend to Achieve campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all have a role in combatting chronic absenteeism in schools and preventing students from dropping out,\u201d said Dr. Lance Evans, state superintendent of education. \u201cMDE offers professional training and resources to districts, but we ask that local communities and service organizations join in as well. Regular attendance is essential for a student\u2019s success in school.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mississippi Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann is supporting MDE\u2019s attendance awareness efforts. His office has created resource materials available to the public that have been added to MDE\u2019s Attendance Awareness Toolkit<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cStudents\u2019 attendance is a key indicator for success not only in the classroom but in life,\u201d Hosemann said. \u201cIt is imperative for the long-term success of our children and our state that our communities focus on keeping our students in the classroom.\u201d<\/p>\n

MDE began reporting chronic absence data in 2016. The lowest rate of 13% was in 2018-19. The COVID-19 pandemic is believed to be the major factor that led to higher state and national rates in 2021-22 when Mississippi\u2019s was 28%. The state\u2019s 2023-24 rate was 24.4%. MDE will soon release the 2024-25 Chronic Absenteeism Report.<\/p>\n

MDE\u2019s Office of Compulsory School Attendance Enforcement and Dropout Prevention is tasked with ensuring all Mississippi public school students attend school. School attendance officers work out of this office to connect with families and help them eliminate barriers to school attendance. The office collaborated with the North Mississippi Education Consortium earlier this year to offer Attendance Improvement Institutes for school districts from Feb. 24 \u2013 May 16 across the state. The professional development event helped school teams create research-based and effective attendance improvement strategies to increase attendance rates.<\/p>\n

MDE will host the Statewide Chronic Absenteeism and Dropout Prevention Conference\u00a0Sept. 8\u20139, at the Hilton Jackson in Jackson, Mississippi.\u00a0The conference will offer expert-led presentations and breakout sessions focused on innovative strategies to boost student engagement and reduce dropout rates. Additionally, it will provide a platform for sharing best practices and deepening understanding of how to effectively address chronic absenteeism.<\/p>\n

Find all MDE news releases at mdek12.org\/news<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n

###<\/p>\n

Media Contact:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jean Cook, APR
\nChief of Communication
\n601-359-3515
\njcook@mdek12.org<\/a><\/p>\n

Shanderia Minor
\nPublic Information Officer
\n601-359-3515
\nsminor@mdek12.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JACKSON, Miss. \u2013 The Mississippi Department of Education urges all education stakeholders to recognize Attendance Awareness Month in September. Schools, districts and local organizations are encouraged to promote the benefits of students maintaining regular attendance at school and reducing chronic absenteeism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdek12.org\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdek12.org\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdek12.org\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdek12.org\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdek12.org\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3643"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/mdek12.org\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3647,"href":"https:\/\/mdek12.org\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3643\/revisions\/3647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdek12.org\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdek12.org\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdek12.org\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}