Businesses have no incentive to make the call. It further notes that the campaign is not prescriptive in what is a school record but leaves that to communities to determine. This may not be the most productive path. With 30 years of experience in education, I have found employers, in those infrequent times they have approached schools for student information, look for the only thing on a student record that has information they can meaningfully interpret. That is attendance data.
Attendance is real-world, practical, valuable information.
At the same time, schools are the safest places for students to be. Three thousand children per year die of handgun wounds in the United States, and about 1 percent of these fatalities occur in school. During one typical week, more than 30 children die from family violence, abuse, and neglect. Of course, the death of any child is a tragedy, but it is important to have an accurate picture of the situation. Last year, twice as many people were killed by lightning as were killed in school.