Cherry Hill, Evesham/Marlton, Medford, Medford Lakes, Moorestown, Mount Laurel, Voorhees and elsewhere near the iconic state highways of Routes 70 and 73.
The scene melts your heart: little kids standing in front of the classroom holding up their perfect attendance awards for not missing one day of school.
How about the schools? Which ones in Burlington, Camden and Gloucester counties would be recognized for exemplary attendance?
The New Jersey Department of Education School Performance Reports — released for 2024-25 at the school level last week — break down attendance beyond just chronic absenteeism and allow pats on the back, or bricks.
Statewide, just 3.5% of all public school students had perfect attendance in 2024-25.
The 10 attendance awards for schools, based on a 70and73.com analysis of the state data:
Glenview Avenue School in Haddon Heights, where 20.6% of the students had perfect attendance in 2024-25.
Bordentown Regional High School, 16.6%.
Mastery Schools of Camden, a Renaissance public school, 14.6%.
Camden County Technical (Gloucester Township campus), 12%.
Haddon Heights Junior/Senior High School, 11%.
Winslow Township High School, 8.8%.
Florence Township Memorial High School, 7.8%.
Herma S. Simmons Elementary in Clayton, 7.8%.
Roosevelt Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics in Pennsauken, 7.7%.
Gloucester County Institute of Technology, 7.4%.
Students who are frequently absent through the grades tend to have the most difficult time performing well, according to research.
"Research suggests that children who are chronically absent for multiple years between preschool and second grade are much less likely to read at grade level by the third grade. This has been shown elsewhere to make students four times more likely to not graduate from high school," according to a report by the U.S. Department of Education.
Multiple, and often interconnected, factors affect absenteeism, according to the report. "Student disengagement, lack of access to student and family supports and student and family health challenges (are) significant drivers," the report says.
Attendance at some schools in the region was poor, the statistics show.
Several public schools in Camden had the largest percentage of students who missed 20% or more of the school days in 2024-25. The worst in the region, and the state, was Camden High where 54% of the students missed 20% or more of the school days.
Statewide, just 2.9% of all public school students missed 20% or more of all school days in 2024-25.
