Northland schools look to solve low attendance rate problem

At a school in the Elizabeth Métis settlement in eastern Alberta, principal Mark Burke hopes several small changes will encourage his students to come to school more frequently.
Staff have reinstated a fiddling program this year and are planning more lessons outdoors. Instead of teachers calling home when a student’s absence is unexplained, Burke or the office administrative assistant will follow up, he said Thursday.
All of Northland School Division’s 20 schools, including El