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It is now late October. Have any of your students already missed more than a month of school? Are any on track to? Can you even know? Educators understand the importance of school attendance -- as we often say, "You can't teach an empty desk." And schools have mechanisms in place to track it, including average daily attendance (ADA) and truancy. But neither of those measures addresses chronic absenteeism. Chronic absenteeism is typically defined as missing 10 percent or more of a school year -- approximately 18 days a year, or just two days every month. And across the nation, 5 to 7.5 million students are chronically absent.

in a study of California students for Attendance Works, the organization that Hedy Chang oversees, only 17 percent of the students who were chronically absent in both kindergarten and 1st grade were reading proficiently by 3rd grade, compared with 64 percent of those with good attendance in the early years. Weak reading skills in the 3rd grade translate into academic trouble ahead: Students who aren’t reading well by that point are four times more likely to drop out of high school, according to a 2012 study released by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

there are too many negatives to chronic lateness for most people to do it deliberately

the latemonger is actually in need of help and is not receiving it. Psychologist Dr. Linda Sapadin, author of ‘Master Your Fears’, agrees. The consequences of being chronically late run deeper than many people realize.

the first step is to make promptness a conscious priority. "Look at the costs of being late and the payoffs of being on time,"

Once you feel motivated to make a change, Morgenstern says the next step is to figure out why you're always late. The reason can usually be classified as either technical or psychological.

Try turning the question around:  How do other people usually get where they need to go on time?  What steps do they take to avoid being late?  First, they check the clock every so often, particularly when they know there's a deadline approaching.  They estimate how much time they'll need to get wherever they're going and thus what time they'll need to leave where they are.  They pause to figure out how long it will take to finish what they're currently doing and get ready for whatever is coming next.  And then they adjust their behavior accordingly

I suspect that those who chronically show up late don't do these things.  Perhaps they have a tendency to lose themselves in whatever they're currently doing and don't discover what time it is until it's too late.

Last year, more than two million prescriptions for Ritalin and other ADHD drugs were written specifically for children under 17, and at least 75 per cent of them were for young males. Part 3 of a 6-part series.

taking a drug for attention deficit disorder each morning has become as commonplace as downing a vitamin.

prescriptions for Ritalin and other amphetamine-like drugs for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder shot up to 2.9 million in 2009, a jump of more than 55 per cent in four years.

Amid growing pressure on public school districts to improve performance of chronically struggling schools, two nationally recognized education organizations have formed a consortium to offer a research-based approach for transforming  these schools into successful learning environments without requiring mass dismissals of staff, school closures or turnover to charters or outside management organizations.

The new initiative, called SetPoint, pairs classroom technology with intensive coaching to build capacity for sustained change within the local district.

With the SetPoint process, most staff members remain in their positions and receive intensive coaching and modeling in best instructional practices from experienced principals and school leaders.