Highlands School District
Attendance & Truancy
District Attendance Officer
Philosophical Statement: It is the belief of Highlands School District Attendance Officer that school truancy is a symptom, not a problem. The earlier in a student’s school career that action is taken, the better chance to assure intervention and success. According to research, pupils are absent from school for a variety of reasons, including sometimes willful truancy. In situations of truancy, the problems causing absenteeism are often: poverty, neglect, lack of parental support or understanding of the importance of education, peer influence or difficulties and boredom, to name a few. Conversely, students are engaged and regularly attend school when: class is interesting, instruction is participatory, parents “insist” on attendance, the teacher makes class special, teachers care and have high expectations, teachers enforce classroom rules, teachers mark attendance promptly, to name a few responses.