In late September, the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading (CGLR) commended 12 Public Housing Agencies across the country for their work in raising awareness about chronic absenteeism and the importance of daily school attendance. The recognition is part of a national collaboration between the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading (CGLR) and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
One of those recognized community bright spots was King County Housing Authority (KCHA), who this year helped lead the Eastside Pathways Attendance Collaborative’s fourth annual awareness campaign during September. Attendance awareness is an agency-wide priority for KCHA, with work happening in South King County communities too. In White Center, an educational place-based initiative is concentrated in preschool and kindergarten grades due to the high rates of chronic absenteeism. Using its network of partners, KCHA achieves this work through community-level focused strategies. These include aligning attendance policies and procedures across services, identifying and collaborating to reduce barriers for families, and providing attendance support for at-risk students.
“A quality education is one of the greatest gifts we can give to our children. But too many students today don’t have a safe, stable place to call home, preventing them from attending class regularly and reaching their true potential,” said U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro in a CGLR press release. “There’s no more important mission than to use housing as a platform for success and we need to make certain that our youngest residents have every opportunity that an education provides. I’m thrilled that these housing agencies have taken on this challenge and are serving as a model for other housing authorities.”
To learn more about the programs the commended housing agencies developed to address chronic absenteeism, visit gradelevelreading.net/publichousing.