1. Attendance in our School Community, Wake Up Children! Ms. Atkins Mahalia Jackson Scholars Academy P.S./M.S. 123 Kellykim1@hotmail.comKellykim1@hotmail.com Class 3-303

2. The Problem: Student Attendance is poor in the Mahalia Jackson Scholars Academy School Community.

3. Gather The Evidence The ATS on-line system at P.S./M.S. 123 is 88%. The targeted attendance rate is 95% for the 2013-2014 school year.

4. Identify The Causes Increased Temporary Housing in Central Harlem is a major factor that has contributed to the school attendance problem.

5. Identify The Problem continued Students are in custodial care of social services due to ACS cases. Some students are in shelters due to domestic violence.

6. Identify The Causes In 2012-2013, 120 students from P.S./M.S. 123 were from homeless shelters. The specific locations are confidential and are identified with P.O. boxes.

7. Evaluate An Existing Policy School aides contact parents and guardians daily when students are absent. This policy results in responses from parents based on the fact that ACS will be contacted if students have chronic absenteeism.

8. Evaluate An Existing Policy continued The disadvantages of this policy are that there is direct intrusion of family privacy, family embarrassment and not enough personnel who speak various languages to effectively communicate with Non-English speaking parents.

9. Develop Solutions The attendance policy could be improved by having translators effectively communicate with Non-English speaking parents. There also should be parent workshops to address the attendance issue.

10. Select The Best Solution (Feasibility vs. Effectiveness) The most effective policy at this time for our school community is Graham Windham - Beacon. Wake Up! NYC, a multimedia campaign aimed at reducing truancy and chronic absenteeism began in 2011 through the Mayor’s Task Force Initiative and the NY State Office of Children and Family Services are also alternatives to assisting with attendance issues.

11. Wake Up NYC Campaign: www.wakeupnyc.orgwww.wakeupnyc.org Office of Children and Family Services: www.ocfs.ny.govwww.ocfs.ny.gov Graham Windham Beacon: www.graham-windam.orgwww.graham-windam.org Public Policy Analyst: flippedtips.com/plegal/ppa/intro.htmlflippedtips.com/plegal/ppa/intro.html We are the Children!