The North Clackamas School District is a very good school district for kids to learn as they are one the very best districts in the state in terms of dropout rate. Although the district provides their students with all the needs for success, it doesn’t matter if students are refusing to show up to class and learn the curriculum. This truancy problem has led to more north Clackamas schools promoting the importance of attendance and the major influence it has on a students success in school.

To find a solution the district must look at the factors of school or outside factors that may cause students to cut classes. A CRC Health Article suggest “skipping school is a good predictor of other problems, including (but not limited to) gang membership, drug and alcohol use, theft, high-risk sexual behavior, and vandalism.” Most of the actions here describe what the situation within the North Clackamas School District is like. Besides gang membership and theft, even though those may be a factors that contribute to the increased absence rates, drugs, alcohol, vandalism, and sex are very significant factors to the district’s problem. While outside of school grounds, some students are getting drunk or high, while others are being influenced b sexual lusts to avoid coming to school. They get hungover and avoid school because they’re afraid to face the consequences of their actions.

Consistently being absent from class significantly reduces a students chances of success in school. The National Center for Education Statistics explains that “chronic student absence reduces even the best teacher’s ability to provide learning opportunities. Students who attend school regularly have been shown to achieve at higher levels than students who do not have regular attendance.” Students that are absent from school most of the year don’t understand the real impact education has in this world and could potentially have in their lives but personal lusts have blinded them from realizing the obvious, that education is the key to success in this world. Knowledge is power. For example, a student a Clackamas High School has missed a significant amount of school and has now found himself flunking a chemistry course. The student is very bright as he was able to learn the basics of unit within 60 minutes of being tutored. Chemistry is a fairly difficult class as it combines science with a lot of math. Missing this class for a lengthy period of time is a recipe for disaster as shown in this students situation.

Continuous days of unexcused absences results in serious consequences for the students and their parents: “Oregon’s law requires parents or persons in control of a child who has not completed the twelfth grade to enroll the child and maintain the child in regular attendance at school. Violation of this requirement is a Class C violation. If the school determines that a parent has failed to enroll the child and to maintain the child in regular attendance, written notification shall be given to the parent, requiring the parent to attend a conference with a designated school official. If the parent does not attend or fails to send the child to school after the conference, state law and district policy allow the superintendent to issue, or cause to be issued, a citation to appear in Attendance Court (a court created by the Clackamas County Circuit Court). This citation will result in a fine of $180.00 plus assessments” (North Clackamas Social Services). Most of the blame doesn’t belong to the students, but to the parents and their ability to keep their child’s education a priority or lack thereof. Parents must be alert and caring for their child’s education. Parents are always being informed when their students miss school by teachers and administrators. As the provider and guardian of these students, parents must need to do whatever it takes for their child to have a successful future in this advancing world. Students that are bonafide absentees aren’t affecting their own education but could potentially compromise the success of others who are trying to be success in this world where knowledge is power.    

Last year and many years before, the upperclassmen (juniors and seniors) at Clackamas were granted the ability to have free periods. This year this privilege has been limited to seniors as the amount of time students are in class wasn’t enough to sustain both juniors and seniors  As a result juniors, who may have loaded up on tough, time-consuming classes, who were expecting to get some free period are in for a challenging school year.

The North Clackamas School District has not been ignorant of the truancy problems the district is facing. As a result middle and elementary schools that are apart of the district are promoting parents to stay aware of their student’s attendance. Happy Valley Middle School has created a guide to truancy for the parents of their students. Rock Creek Middle School made attendance one of the main priorities for their students because of the profound relationship educational success has with attending class. Even elementary schools such as View Acres where students don’t have any outside distractions is still promoting the idea of attendance to their young scholars to engrave the importance of showing up to class in the heads of their students.

The relationship between attendance rate and successful education is represented in all districts across the globe. It is impossible to have good grades when you never show up to class. The North Clackamas School District can only do so much and ask the parents to monitor child attendance, but they cannot force their students to come to school. That responsibility falls on the shoulders of the parents and their belief on the importance of education. A student has a very high chance of living in poverty if they refuse to come to school and learn what they need to know to make it into this advancing world and live wealthily.