Improving students’ attendance and truancy prevention have always been areas of concern by the teachers in school.  The school believes that students who are not present during classes cannot learn and has a tendency to drop out their their schooling. The students who make frequent absences can be engaged to a high-risk behavior and eventually, it entangles them to the juvenile justice system.

        With this, the Department of Education has a massive advocacy campaign regarding the implementation of the Dropout Reduction Program. It is important to support this kind of program including the attendance problems. And to prevent the students from dropping out, all schools are required to conduct trainings and seminars with regard to this program.

         Several best practices have been identified in order to improve attendance and reduce truancy, these are collaboration, use of incentives and sanctions, family involvement and establishment of a supportive context.

         In line with this policy and guidelines, every school staff is asked to make an intervention and strategy for attendance improvement and dropout reduction. This has been made so that they will be more aware and knowledgeable on how to identify effective approaches on dropout reduction. 

By: Jacquelyn D. Tallorin | Teacher I | Cataning Elementary School