Want To Make A School Better? Get Kids To Show Up

...He has studied high school dropouts for years, and in his research he kept seeing a red flag: chronic absences in elementary and middle school. Students who miss a couple days a month fall behind in reading — and if they can't read, they can't pass tests.

"To miss a month of school when you're 11 and 12, there's got to be something behind that," Balfanz says — and at Wolfe Street Academy there were. The list included things like tooth decay, mental health issues and not having a winter coat...
http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2015/11/12/455052958/want-to-make-a-school-better-get-kids-to-show-up