Early registration continues to have a positive effect on regular school attendance, with early registrants more likely to have 90% or better attendance in the kindergarten year, according to the latest analysis of registration data by the Multnomah Educational Service District with SUN Service system and Multnomah County.
Data for 2016-17 representing 6,645 enrollments across six districts with SUN programming showed that 68% of kindergartners were registered by the June 30 campaign goal. Pre-K experience was reported by 71.8% of parents of incoming kindergartners, with 24.5% reporting no pre-K experience and 3.7% not answering.
Early registration continues to serve as a key access point for school-readiness programs like Early Kindergarten Transition and Kindergarten Teacher Home Visits.
“The main take away from this data is that we are better positioned to meet the needs of children and families when we are able to connect with them before the first day of school,” said Jessica Arzate, manager at Early Learning Multnomah, who worked on this year’s Ready for Kindergarten campaign. “It’s one data point that can help us to deepen the impact of ELM investments like P-3 coordinators at the elementary school level.”
Going forward, there are now six years of data from which to conduct a trend analysis. A deeper look at school-level registration trends as well as pre-K experience and special education data, are also future possibilities.