Attendance Tips for Teachers – Albuquerque Public Schools

By Lolly Garcia On Oct 11, 2021

Sent: October 11, 2021

Attendance tips for teachers

Attendance should take place during the first 10 minutes of class.

Albuquerque Public Schools is committed to improving school attendance and reducing chronic absenteeism across the district. APS has outlined 5 pillars of excellence that the district will focus on in the 2021-2022 school year. One of these pillars – maintaining an effective and efficient operation – corresponds to the importance of daily attendance / period and keeping accurate records.

It is the goal of the APS Attendance Supports Unit to align with the pillars of the district and ensure that it supports schools in their efforts to keep accurate attendance records. District attendance coordinators can provide ideas and tools to help plan a successful year and maintain accurate attendance records.

Teacher: Please do your best to enable attendance within the first 10 minutes of the lesson. For security reasons and for accurate record keeping, it is imperative that you attend as soon as possible each morning or at the start of each class.

Failure to track attendance on a daily basis affects the following:

Security: Families do not receive a security text / phone call
Chronic absence data: effects on school grades (bonus points)
District Records: APS automatically reports attendance records to the state so we will report inaccurate data in a legal document if attendance is not filed on time each day.
Area # 4: The class teacher is responsible for keeping accurate records.

Possible strategies to support daily / periodic attendance

Set a timer (phone, Promethean board, student job)
Make it a part of your daily routine
Include the assignment in your lesson plans
Get a teacher friend of yours to help each other remember
Set a school-wide reminder for announcements
Create a student board so that all students can check in independently.

Thank you for helping us resolve this very important issue. If you have any questions, please send an email to [email protected] to the Attendance Supports department.