1

Chapter 1

Introduction

When students are tardy, teachers must continually restart instruction or delay beginning
instructional periods throughout the school day. To address the considerable amount of
instructional time lost caused by high rates of tardiness, the authors investigated of school wide
intervention to reduce student tardiness.

The participating school staff implemented school wide intervention that include explicit teaching
of expected transition behaviour, active supervision of students in common areas during
transition times, and consistent consequences for tardiness. After implementation, average daily
tardiness decreased substantially and lower levels were maintained over time. The authors
provide implications for school wide intervention to improve student punctuality and
recommendations for future research.

As a result of concern for educational outcomes in our nation`s schools, the federal government
has increased expectations for school accountability through the No Child Left Behind Act
(2001), which requires that schools improve student achievement in core academic areas. In
efforts to ensure adequate yearly progress, schools are not only revisiting their curriculum and
instructional delivery systems, but they are also working to increase the time that students are
engaged in academics (Center on Education Policy, 2008). Rather than implementing initiatives
to extend the length of the typical school day and year, schools can often increase instructional
time by making better use of the minutes already available within the school day.

Chronic tardiness is one disciplinary problem that can significantly decrease instructional time at
the secondary level. When many students arrive late to instructional periods scheduled
throughout the day, teachers must continually restart class or delay beginning instruction
because it is not practical to begin class on time (Johnson, 1995; Sprick, 2003). Therefore, the
poor punctuality of several students in one class can significantly reduce the minutes of
instruction for all students enrolled in the class (Gettinger and Ball 2008; Sprick, 2003).

When many students are chronically late to class, the need for systems-level intervention is
indicated because it suggests that expectations related to punctuality are unclear and
consequences for tardiness are not implemented or are not effective. In school wide positive
behaviour support (PBS), a preventative framework of behavioural support is established that
includes the following universal components: (a) explicit teaching and reinforcement of small
number for behavioural expectations, (b) implementation of consistent consequences for
violations for school rules, and (c) use of data to drive intervention planning and monitoring of
outcomes (Horner et al., 2004; Sugai and Horner, 2006.
Reasons for Students Tardiness

Students are social animals. If they are late to class, they can have an extra 5-15 minutes to
chat with their friends. There are no positive incentives to be on time. In some classes, no
constructive activity happens for the first five minutes, giving students the impression that they
won`t be missing anything if they are late. There are no immediate consequences for being
tardy. In many schools, staff members report tardiness intermittently and nothing may happen
until the tenth incident. There is a lack of supervisions in hallways. If only a few staff members
are systematically supervising the halls, restrooms, and stairwells, students may realize they
aren`t likely to be caught when they are tardy. Obstructed hallway flow can cause students to be
late for classes. Students may congregate in ways that block traffic for others, particularly for the
younger or smaller students.

 Work together in coordinated, highly choreographed team efforts they design and
conduct a positive sweep. If everyone does a little, then no one must do a lot.’
 Determine and communicate consequences and apply them consistently.
 Provide positive supervisions in halls, restrooms, and other common areas by treating
students respectfully.
 View misbehaviour as an instructional opportunity. With a friendly demeanour, talk with
the student about why it is important to be on time and encourage the students to try
harder in the future. For example, share that “it`s important to be on time because you
don`t want to miss what the teacher is saying,” rather than, “you don`t want to be late.”
 Develop and present lessons to students that explicitly teach them how to behave in the
hallways, restrooms, and throughout the common areas in the school.

By implementing a positive sweep in your school, you can virtually eliminate tardiness in
surprisingly short amount of time. Schools have reduced tardiness by more than 90% in only
five weeks, thereby increasing instructional time and momentum—in some cases, gaining
the equivalent of three extra days a year per student.

Students who are Chronically Late to Class

Students who display a passive—aggressive personality style may do so in a variety ways,

from chronic tardiness to sleeping in class. Let`s look at the student who`s always running
late.

As you know, some students are late to class on a regular basis, and in doing so are
probably displaying a form of resistance or defiance—and it is wise to see it as such.”

When questioned about their habitual lateness, students are able to justify or excuse it on
the grounds that they have other tasks to attend to, such as child care or job responsibilities
 3

that prompt punctual class attendance. Many instructors are thus made to feel guilty and
thereby disarmed by such reasons or excuse. They allow students to talk them into
considering these excuses as authentic extenuations.

If this sounds familiar to you, here are a few opinions on the subject to consider.

1. Arriving to class punctually is an important responsibility borne entirely by the

student, not the instructor.
2. Although child care or job responsibilities are clearly time consuming, and when
combined with the demands connected with attending college can be downright
overwhelming, it is again largely the responsibility of the student, not the instructor, to
decide which takes priority --- one`s job, one`s child care responsibilities, or
punctually attending classes.
3. Lateness is often rude and disruptive form of behaviour, especially when it is
accompanied by doors opening and shutting, loud noises, and distractingly passing
in front of the instructor or teacher to get their seats.
4. Habitual tardiness to class, much like when friends or family members habitually
arrive late for social gatherings and usually infuriate us because of their
thoughtlessness, is typically a sign of devaluation of and contempt for instructors and
other students who have arrived to class punctually. Even more important, it is most
likely a sign of devaluation and contempt for one`s own education, albeit
unconscious, since the student`s habitual tardiness will necessarily his or her time n
class and cause the student to forfeit important opportunities for learning.
5. Instructors who habitually arrive late to class themselves are poor models for their
students and should find any reasonable means possible to correct this form of
unprofessional behaviour.

Generally speaking, strict rules and adverse consequences for chronic lateness almost
always improve attendance and punctuality. Remember this, form of passive-aggressive
behaviour can be remedied if you allow yourself to use a clear, fair, and proportionate set of
adverse consequences to deal with it.
Tips and Tricks for Reducing School Tardiness

Getting tardiness under control—and/or keeping it under control—is a priority for most
schools. A tardiness problem impact more than just the front desk however you sign in students
who show up late, longer lines and processing time have a compounding impact on instruction
time for every student in line.

A part of reducing the impact of tardiness is reducing processing time to lower this
impact on instruction time. Hero makes this easy by automating the discipline actions resulting
from tardy infractions, and giving you tools like scanners, pass printers (and mobile versions of
both) to streamline the process as much as possible.

The other aspect is having a tardiness policy that addresses the root of the problem by holding
students accountable, and encouraging consistent improvement. In this whitepaper, we will
discuss an effective tardy management program that improves school climate and reduces
tardiness.

Institute a Closed Door Policy

The first step that you can take to reduce tardiness is to institute a closed door policy.
This means doors are closed when the bell rings. If you`re late, you`re late and you need to get
a pass. A closed door policy accomplishes a few important goals. It minimizes classroom
interruptions for students who have shown up on time and prepared for class.

 It establishes clear, consistent expectations for students.

 It keeps teachers from having to choose whether or not to spend instruction timer
reprimanding students who are late. Once a door is closed, students will quickly learn
what is expected from them. From there, you can determine how best to redirect this
behaviour.

The Progressive Discipline Path

One well—established avenue for managing tardiness is progressive discipline, where incidents
are treated first with warnings, eventually escalating to more aggressive disciplinary. A
progressive discipline policy that works like this
 3

 1st tardy: Warning

 2nd tardy: Cleaning
 3rd tardy: Parent`s Attention

…will show students that it is not okay to be tardy and will lay out the consequences if they
continue to exhibit this behaviour. While in most cases, it is very effective.

Best Practices for Tardy Management

The Positive Reinforcement Path

The other primary channel through which you can effectively address tardiness is through a
strong positive behaviour program.

The caveat is that the positive reinforcement needs to occur in the context of a positive program
where students are engaged and care about the rewards for good behaviour. If you`re looking
for more information about using hero to power your positive behaviour system, learn more
here. How to Stop Students Tardiness, Build Attendance and On—time Behaviour.

The time to start teaching attendance and punctuality skills is Day 1, Week 1. For many school
staff, that time is the start of your school year. Remember: You can be the best teacher or
counsellor on the planet but if you`re students are late to be taught or counselled, it doesn’t
really matter how good you are. The bottom line: students must be present if you are to
successfully work with them.

Hello from Author and Workshop Presenter Ruth Herman Wells, M.S. I`ve worked for decades
to develop innovative, state-of –the-art methods to teach children and teens to arrive on time
every time.
The bad news is that many kids have problems with tardiness. The good news is that often
tardiness can be rapidly and effectively addressed. Punctuality is another essential school skill
we consistently expect without consistently and fully teaching. Once trained to be punctual,
many kids show lasting improvement. Punctuality is like other key school: you must teach it
before you see it from your students.

How to Reduce Student Tardiness in 4 Steps

1. Motivate Them

Motivation is usually the most important step to stopping lateness because so many students
see no reason be on time. Convincing students that on—time behaviour is an essential skill,
often generates more change than any other approach. You can find hundreds of motivation—
makers throughout our website, in our articles (see the index at right), and there are hundreds
more in our Maximum-Strength Motivation-Makers book. You can also try the sample
intervention below, but as you know, you will need to use far more than just a few motivational
strategies to have the desired impact on students` tardiness and attendance problems.

2. Identify the Causes

Students have problems with lateness for many reasons including distractions, cultural
differences, skill deficiencies and poor motivation. To most effectively build on-time, identify and
address the source of the lateness. For example, a high school student may be late because
she lacks adult help wake up and prepare for school each day. Her problem may be best
modified by giving her skills to plan a wake-up-and –get ready schedule for arriving on time.

3. Step-by-step Help

Most students cannot just instantly start being on time any more than you can just instantly start
being on time an can just instantly start being on time any more than you can just instantly lose
10 pounds or instantly start speaking Swedish. That is part of why consequences can be a
particularly ineffective way to improve attendance and punctuality. Once source of the lateness
has been identified, offer step-by-step help.

Many students have not been fully trained to promptly perform routine tasks like completing
homework or being seated prior to the bell ringing. Stop assuming they have these skills.
 3

Consequences and rewards will not compensate for skills. Plan to teach these skills in a manner
that is as systematic and organized as the approach you would use to teach spelling algebra.

Just as you can`t rely on consequences and rewards instead of instruction to build competence
in algebra, you cannot rely on consequences or rewards instead of instruction to build
competence in the area of punctuality. Potentially, this is a completely different wyh of thinking
about and managing punctuality issues.

4. Expect Incremental Change

Students whose lateness is primarily due to skill deficiencies or cultural differences, may show
improvement only gradually. Mastering new skills requires time and practice so hold reasonable
expectations. Students often detect and react negatively to adults` impatience. The pace of
change may be more rapid in students whose tardiness is primarily due to motivational
problems. When finally convinced that punctuality is important, these students can change quiet
rapidly.

Parental Engagement

There can be a lot of reasons a student might be tardy. In fact, your front desk has probably
heard them all. Some are legitimate, some don`t hold up to scrutiny, but whatever the excuse,
it`s a good idea to get parents involved at some point in this process.

With Hero, you have two ways to get parents involved with issues like tardiness:

Hero can automatically create a parent letter (or email) that is triggered with some action, like a
second warning or detention assignment, occur