The importance of tracking school attendance and its impact on student safety
Why do schools focus so much on student attendance and implement punitive measures when students chronically do not show up?
There are a few reasons beyond the simple one of attendance being the “rule”. Chronic absenteeism begins in the early ages. In fact, more than 10 per cent of kindergarten students and first graders are chronically absent (missing 10 per cent or more of school days). Students with high absenteeism rates are more likely to fall behind in math and reading, and dropping out of school later on.
High rates of chronic absenteeism are reflective of a school’s culture. When attendance is de-prioritized, students’ morales may be diminished, affecting their affinity to school, a trait necessary for safe schools. Incorporating smart school management technology into school safety measures may therefore be a part of the solution in aiding the tracking of student attendance.
When students' safety needs are met, the learning environment becomes comfortable and conducive. Schools are responsible for ensuring they are safe and accounted for during the day.
Accounting for students
Accurately document students’ daily attendance with a digital security system. This way, teachers can keep track of present students and reach out to parents of absent students.
Parents, especially of young children, are understandably concerned for their wellbeing. It is therefore essential to have detailed and accurate records of the exact time students enter and leave school, should there be a need for that information.
Using a digital attendance-taking tool like LittleLives' Little Check In comes with additional benefits:
- Easy search of attendance records
- Sophisticated attendance tech adds another layer of security
- Parents can receive automatic updates that their child is safely in school
Besides physical safety, healthy school attendance also correlates with better school performance.
Monitoring students’ day-to-day health
Play is a crucial part of school life. With this comes the risk of injury or illness as children get curious, take risks, and sometimes end up injured or in dispute. While these incidences are normal, it is important to note them down.
Details like what happened, when it happened and who was involved should be recorded on a centralized platform. Recording these down for the reference of other school staff can let them know to be more sensitive to students involved. An all-encompassing school management app would also be able to record students’ daily health status such as temperature, illness or overall school status.
Data safety
With the digital age, comes digital crime. While our recommendation is for schools to go digital to ensure physical student safety, remember to keep data protection as a priority. The school management system chosen to handle sensitive data needs to be secure.
School management software, like LittleLives, is built to protect student data, adhere to international data protection policies, and prevent data breaches. As a bonus, such school-focused technology is also often very user-friendly as it is built to facilitate your needs as a school administrator or educator.
To sum it up
A smart school management system is designed to make your life easier. It is the nervous system for your institution around which other technologies are incorporated. It is, in fact, a master plan to regulate administrative operations in a consolidated, integrated, efficient and smooth way to increase the productivity of your school.
If you are still looking for a system that will work well for your school's operations, you can contact LittleLives to see how we can help!
