Birmingham Schools Fight Absenteeism by Paying Parents, See Huge Participation Spike

Every Day Counts is an initiative for Birmingham City Schools parents paying them to keep their children in school. It’s available for all parents or guardians living in public housing.

It’s one way to address the chronic absenteeism that BCS is experiencing. Last reported as more than 5% higher than the state average rate.

The program is a random drawing where qualifying households are entered in a drawing for $300 in rent and utility payments supplied by local partners. {snip}

One drawing winner said, “I got that blessing thanks to my children. It’s very important that they are in school it means something to me that I received that blessing because of them.”

When the program began at the beginning of the year there were only 3 households that qualified for the drawing. Now, as the last drawing of the school year happened there are 196 households that qualify.

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