It’s no secret that attendance, both during and after school hours, has close ties to student success. Research has long shown that when students regularly participate in quality after-school programs, their school-day attendance, classroom work habits, and decision-making skills all improve.

A study of the AfterZone program in Rhode Island showed that students participating in the program had a day school absence rate that was 25 percent lower than that of their peers. Additionally, teachers of all grade levels reported that at least 50 percent of students who regularly attended a 21CCLC after-school program during the year showed increased engagement and improved behavior.

In other words, student attendance plays a vital role for after-school programs—and those aren’t the only reasons why. To secure federal funding, after-school programs are required by law to submit a 21st Century Community Learning Center Annual Performance Report (21APR). These reports, which include student attendance data and other important metrics, are used to demonstrate the success of after-school programs.

It’s clear that tracking attendance is a must for program administrators—but given the number of students and activities in a program, doing it the manual way might seem nearly impossible. You’ve probably heard of digital solutions for simplifying the attendance tracking process but might be unsure of whether or not you need one for your after-school program.

In this blog, we share four reasons why you need to be using a student attendance tracking system.

1. Simplifies the Attendance Tracking Process

There are so many options for tracking attendance—and while pen and paper is still a favorite for many educators, it can be unreliable without pre-printed rosters and barcodes for scanning. With the help of technology, you can improve and streamline the attendance-taking process and reducing errors. Technology provides a mobile-friendly way to take attendance on the fly—no matter what (or where) the activity is. For example, this type of solution would allow you to capture attendance while you’re off-site for an activity without having to worry about lugging around paperwork.

2. Helps Support Reporting and Evaluation

Whether it’s in your 21APR or updates to stakeholders, your program’s funding is likely dependent on accurate attendance data—so why chance it by tracking attendance the manual way? With a student attendance tracking system, you can easily collect and report on participation data when you’re reporting to your existing funding sources or applying for new sources of funding. This helps save a significant amount of time that would otherwise be spent compiling and re-entering/keying data and double-checking for potential errors.

3. Reduces Attendance Data Errors

Human error is an inevitability—and that’s a clear no-go when you’re working on an attendance report to apply for grant funding. Student attendance tracking technology is changing the game, helping school administrators reduce errors in participation data and giving them peace of mind that everything is accurate in the 21APR.

4. Assists with Meeting Attendance Goals

With built-in attendance reports, you can easily spot problem areas and identify where there’s room for improvement. For instance, if you recognize that certain students or activities have low participation rates, you can determine what the potential problems are and how you can improve. This ultimately helps you meet attendance goals, including those necessary to comply with regulations at the state and federal level, such as in the mandatory 21APR.

Automate Your Attendance Tracking with AS21

With after-school program software like AfterSchool21, you can completely streamline the attendance tracking process. AfterSchool21 is used by after-school programs nationwide to support clean, accurate data on their Annual Performance Report.

Schedule a demo of AfterSchool21 to learn more about our online data and program management software.