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Attendance is Everyone’s Business
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April 13, 2010
To: The Assignment Editor
WDIV TV Detroit
The Detroit Public Schools Office of Parent and Community Engagement, Attendance/Code
of Conduct and Safe and Drug Free Schools present "Attendance is Everyone’s Business".
We need your assistance in promoting our efforts to assist parents in helping their
children reach their highest potential.
On March 30, 2010, the Superintendent of the Detroit Public Schools, Teresa N. Gueyser
and the Attendance Collaborative presented our initiative to the Detroit City Council.
At that time a resolution was adopted declaring April 26, 2010 as "Attendance is
Everyone’s Business Day" in the City of Detroit. On this day we are asking parents,
caregivers and guardians to take their child(ren) to school and make sure that they
attend school every day thereafter. Furthermore, we are asking all businesses in
the City of Detroit to adhere to the Anti-Truancy Ordinance and refuse admittance
or service to school-aged children during school hours.
The rationale behind this effort is to proactively approach the issues of high drop-out
rates and poor academic success due to sporadic attendance in school. Through partnering
with our parents and other stakeholders we believe that we will have a positive
impact and create a climate of cooperation and trust that will support our families
and educators in producing highly educated, productive citizens.
We are hosting several city wide parent meetings and rallies this year where we
will discuss different topics such as Strategies to Reduce Truancy, Parental Involvement
Techniques, The Effects of Truancy, Delinquency and The Drug Culture in our Community.
Our focus at these meetings is to develop useful strategies to assist parents and
students in understanding how being "on time and on task" at school has a direct
benefit to their lives and the community at large.
As a collaborative we realize that the best academic programs are of zero value
to children not in school. And since no community can escape the spillover effects
of truancy, it is our mission to eliminate truancy in the Detroit Public Schools.
We will accomplish our mission by addressing the underlying causes of truancy, educating
the community on the effects of truancy and insisting on the active engagement of
all stakeholders to keep our children in school and graduating on time.
We are very excited about this initiative. We would like to turn this into a movement
that asks the simple question… "Is your child in school today?" When everyone works
toward this effort Everyone Wins!!! Our partners are Wayne Mediation Center and
Neighborhood Legal Services Michigan. To assist us in this effort and for more information,
please give me a call at 313-719-0092.
Best regards,
George Eason
"Attendance is Everyone’s Business" Committee
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