How to Reduce Absenteeism: Students Who Leave Home but Never Reach School
The student leaves home on time, in uniform. The parent believes they are at school. The school believes they are at home. Nobody finds out for days.
You know this student. They leave home on time, in full uniform, with their bag on their back, and never reach your gate. They spend the day at a friend’s house, at an internet café playing games, or betting in town. Their parent thinks they are in class. Your teachers think they are sick at home. Each side assumes the other knows.
Why nobody notices for days
- The class teacher marks them absent, but nobody tells the parent that day.
- The parent finds out weeks later, from the days absent on the report, or at the end of term.
- By the time the school phones home, days have passed, and nobody remembers where the child was.
- The student knows exactly how long it takes anyone to notice, and uses that time.
Your school does record the absence. The problem is that the record never reaches the parent the same day, and the parent is the one person who would act on it at once.
Tell the parent the same morning
If a student has not reached school by a set time, their parent should hear about it that morning. A parent who believes their child is in class, and gets a message at 9:00am saying they have not arrived, picks up the phone straight away.
Once students know their parent will be told the same morning, every time, a day somewhere else is no longer worth it. They cannot hide a whole day any more.
GatePass tells the parent the same morning when their child has not arrived at school. Your first term is free.
Start freeMake “arrived” a message parents expect
When parents get a message every morning that their child has arrived at school, silence becomes the warning. The parent does not have to wait for the school to report an absence: no “arrived” message means something is wrong.
The strongest check is not your register. It is a parent who expects to hear, every morning, that their child arrived.
Do not worry parents who already know
A child who is sick at home, or away with your permission, should not set off a worried message. Record planned absences in the office first, so only the unexplained ones go out.
Watch for patterns, not single days
One absent day is usually a fever. Three days in a row, or every Friday, is a pattern worth a conversation. Look at absence student by student across the term, and talk to the family early, while it is still a habit and not yet a problem.
How GatePass does it
Students scan their ID at the school gate, and their parent gets a message on the GatePass app the moment they arrive. If a student has not arrived by the time your school sets (9:00am unless you change it), their parent is told that their child has not arrived at school, and the head teacher gets one line saying how many students are missing. Students the office has already recorded as away or sick are not reported.
Parents open GatePass every day to see their child arrive. Try it free for your first term.
Start freeCommon questions
What if a parent does not have a smartphone?+
The arrival and absence messages come through the GatePass app, so that parent needs a smartphone signed in to it. For families without one, the office still has the list of students who have not arrived, so it knows exactly whom to call.
Will a parent get a worrying message when their child is genuinely sick?+
Not if the absence is recorded first. A child the office has marked as sick or away is not reported, so the message goes out only when nobody knows where the child is.
What time does the message go out?+
At the time your school sets: late enough that ordinary late-comers have arrived, early enough that a parent can still act the same morning. GatePass uses 9:00am unless you change it.
Ntale Livingstone
Founder, GatePass
