For the first time, September has been declared "School Attendance Month" in Scottsbluff after the Scottsbluff City Council and the Scottsbluff Board of Education passed motions to support efforts to keep students in school and engaged with learning.  At their respective meetings held on August 30, 2021, the Scottsbluff City Council and the Scottsbluff Board of Education read a proclamation designating September 2021 as Student Attendance Month in Scottsbluff.

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"The purpose of proclaiming September as School attendance month is to raise awareness about this very important issue, encouraging all of our community to work together in helping our students attend school regularly,” said Jamie Batterman, School Climate Coordinator. The proclamation comes as SBPS launches Every Day Matters, a new attendance campaign aiming to raise awareness of the importance of student attendance and the correlation to academic success.  The goal is to provide schools, families and organizations resources and information on motivating students to come to school and also to stay in school.  

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“September is an important time to focus on student attendance because it is the first full month of school and many times attendance habits set early on, are maintained throughout the rest of the school year,” said Batterman.  “If a family can focus on having students attend school consistently through the month of September, or even missing less days than last year at this time, this can help make a difference in the student’s year-long attendance and their academic achievement.” 

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Scottsbluff Public Schools’s Every Day Matters campaign is part of the District’s ongoing school climate efforts made possible by a 2.3 million dollar Federal School Climate Transformation Grant received from the United States Department of Education.  In order to support this work, SBPS is opening a Family Success Center in order to create a one-stop location for students and families who may be experiences a range of issues that create barriers to school and school attendance, to work directly with families to identify needs and make connections to resources, collaborate with teachers, counselors and principals to support at-risk students; provide homelessness outreach and support for students and families and To build relationships through positive community outreach.  The Family Success Center houses specialized staff to help meet the needs of families including a Family and Community Navigator, Community and Student Outreach Liaisons and the District’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Facilitator.