COLUMBUS, Ga. (WRBL) — The month of September is Attendance Awareness Month. The Muscogee County School District and the Columbus Literacy Alliance have teamed up to promote the importance of everyday attendance for maintaining academic achievement.

Building strong attendance habits starts at home with a healthy morning routine to get students excited to learn. According to Child Mind.org showing up on time to school every day can reduce classroom interruptions and distractions for all students.

Tonya Lindsey a Muscogee County School District social worker says this is why making sure students are always on time is their main priority.

“Our goal throughout the nation is to increase our school attendance for all students so that they can participate in learning social-emotional development, fun activities with their classmates, and effort for them to be able to be productive citizens as adults. We want our students to be college and career-ready,” said Lindsey.  

Brandy Tolbart the director of the Columbus Literacy Alliance reminds the community the road to literacy is a marathon not a sprint.  

“Just a matter of missing 20 minutes a day can be detrimental to their learning opportunity. And so we’re partnering with the school district to bring that awareness for parents and give them tips about how to make sure your child is prepared and ready for school every day,” shared Tolbart.

Muscogee County Schools will be celebrating Attendance Awareness all month with various activities for students and parents to remind them that daily attendance is crucial to academic success.