SLED's Attendance Incentive Program Helps Make Summer School Count

From San Leandro Education Foundation

The San Leandro Education Foundation (SLED) announced this week that students at San Leandro High’s summer school will pick up rewards and prizes for their perfect attendance, thanks to an incentive program made possible by community donations to SLED.

SLED will donate four $5 gift cards to each summer school classroom to be used in a weekly raffle. Students who were present and on time to each class will be eligible for prizes at the end of every week. SLED's attendance raffles are valued at $3,120.

Summer School Principal Guillermo Morales states, "Students attending summer school are some of the District's children most in need of support. Once again, SLED has stepped up to the plate and hit a home run by supporting these students. We are very excited about their generous and creative contributions in the form of gift cards for the summer session.”

SLED’s Board of Directors voted to fund the incentive program at its June board meeting after considering the need to support all students all year round, even after the regular school year ended. According to the California Department of Education, many children lose ground academically over the summer if they are not engaged in academic related activities. SLED considered "summer learning loss", which disproportionately affects the lowest-income children. The phenomenon is also cumulative, so every summer a child suffers from these setbacks, the further and further they potentially fall behind. Several studies have concluded that attendance incentives have proven to be successful in increasing student participation in school.

“Since the announcement, students have repeatedly approached staff to tell us that they have been on time to their classes each week and hope their name is selected for the gift cards,” Morales said. “Teachers have also been excited about the gift cards and constantly remind students of their attendance and encourage them to continue arriving to class, on time, so their names may be called the following week. SLED's partnership with the District is helping drive the agenda of summer school to support the children most in need of our collaborative efforts.”

SLED hopes to continue offering this program on an annual basis. Please join SLED and donate to support programs like these. To learn more about the foundation, visit sledfund.org.

For more information, please contact Tessa Atkinson-Adams at 510/703-3300 or email tessa@sledfund.org.