SCCPSS Celebrates Attendance Awareness Month in September

Celebrating its 13th year, the national Attendance Awareness Campaign broadcasts the message that every day a student is in school is an opportunity to learn, build relationships and access support. Every September, Attendance Awareness Month takes place to spread awareness regarding why maintaining attendance in school is essential for academic success.

Chronic absenteeism – which means a student has missed 10-percent or more of school days – is a problem that has grown worse since the pandemic.  Nationally, research shows that more than eight million students are missing school so much that their academic records have been affected. Many times, the students don’t even realize how bad the problem is till they are given a warning. By that time, it’s often too late.

That’s why Attendance Awareness Month is celebrated every September to remind students near the start of the school year of the importance of being in school.  This year, the Savannah-Chatham County Public School System also wants to remind our families of policy updates that could impact them if their student falls into a pattern of chronic absenteeism. Each year, we ask our families to familiarize themselves with the SCCPSS Student Code of Conduct.  This year there are some modifications that we want to ensure that you and your student are aware of regarding attendance. Please see the updates below.

2025-26 UPDATED ATTENDANCE RULES

Attendance rules will be stricter in the 2025-26 School Year.  In years past, a student could have ten (10) unexcused absences before being considered truant.  That rule is changing.  The new number is five (5) unexcused absences and a student will be considered truant. In addition to other penalties, a student with 10 or more unexcused absences are at risk of receiving No Credit (NC) for courses in which they are enrolled.

There are also some new options to assist students in maintaining the required number of days in school.  The district will now offer Asynchronous Remote Attendance for up to five (5) days per school year. The District may require any K-12 student who has excused or unexcused absences to utilize the school/district-provided Attendance Recovery option to make up for the missed time from school.  Parents/guardians will be notified of this requirement two weeks in advance. Students may recover up to 5 days per semester.  Learn more about these changes in the Student Code of Conduct.

In a statewide effort to promote attendance – GaDOE has also launched an Attendance Dashboard to provide real-time data to schools and districts. Located in Georgia Insights, the dashboard allows districts and schools to examine subgroup, grade-level, and yearly data, find potential root causes, and determine next steps. Users have access to comparison data, average daily attendance calculations, chronic absentee rates, and subgroup-specific information for the last six years.