With the latest crisis, as a parent, you might not see the harm in allowing your children to just have fun for the rest of the school year. You have a lot of other items on your plate right now, and your kids may be stressed about trying to work remotely and be away from their friends. So, what really is the harm in allowing them to have a break until the next school term?
In reality, letting your children miss school for even a short amount of time could have detrimental effects on their academic performance. In fact, recent research shows that missing 10% of school (about 18 days – known as chronic absenteeism) can hurt their school career. And, while that might not seem like a lot of days, it actually works out to about two days a month.
Another study showed that chronic absenteeism in kindergartners can determine whether a child succeeds in school. A recently released study by researcher Michael Gottfried at the University of California, Santa Barbara indicated that missing school can negatively affect both academic performance and social-emotional skills, which are needed to continue the learning process. The effects are particularly pronounced among students who miss four or more weeks of school per year.
While some parents might think that they should only worry about chronic absenteeism in higher grades, a number of studies show that skipping school during preschool and kindergarten can lead to being held back in third grade and affect a child’s ability to master reading. Allowing your child to continually miss school can lead to having poor grades, lower scores on the National Assessment for Education Progress (NAEP) test or suspensions – high school and middle school students might even drop out of school.
So, now is not the time to be lax on your children. Ensure that they’re continuing their studies – even if they’re in remote classrooms through distance learning right now. When school does go back to normal, encourage them to attend their classes, and make sure that they are doing everything that they can to succeed in school.
If you are worried about your child’s absences or are interested in ways to help them improve their academic performance, feel free to reach out to Friends Christian School for guidance. We’d love to share details about our distance learning program in Yorba Linda!
