Throughout all the debates as to how school districts should provide our students an education, there is a key and critical indicator of academic success which our legislators and even our state board of education have no control over.  The control of this indicator of success lies solely in the hands of the parents and guardians of our children. The critical factor that directly impacts our children’s education on a day to day basis is school attendance.

Yes, we all know the impact that good school attendance plays on the academic success of our students.

However, good school attendance does not just have an impact on our children from just kindergarten to when they graduate high school. One should not limit the effects of good attendance to a child’s school years.

When parents set a precedent for their children that attendance is crucial to achieving success, they are also setting a precedent that will follow them into their adult lives.

According to the article Importance of Attendance in Work Ethics by Gail Sessoms, attendance in the work place is among the top 10 work ethics most valued by employers.

Good attendance is a quality that an employee should already have established in regards to their work ethic.

Where does an employee develop this important quality that is noticed in the workplace? Employees are not born with this important work trait.

Adults learn the responsibility of going to work and being on time from the years and years of their parents making sure they attend school.

They learned it from the days when their parents made them go to school even when as children they did not want to go. They also learn it from seeing their parents accepting the responsibility to place a great importance on attendance.  Parents are a key and crucial factor in setting the examples for children to succeed in their lifetime not in just their childhood.

So, the next time your child is complaining and just doesn’t want to go to school, remember it is not the legislator’s decisions or the school’s decision.

As a parent, the decision is yours. It is a decision that will impact your child’s life now and even 20 or 30 years from now.

It is a decision that can set them up for failure or that can help them become the best they can be. Attend today-achieve tomorrow.

By Shari Franklin.