Getting kids in New Britain to come to school

NEW BRITAIN, Conn. (WTNH) -- New Britain is getting help from a nationally-recognized authority on school attendance in order to get kids to come to school.

Last year it was revealed that nearly one third of kindergartners in the New Britain public schools were chronically absent, missing more than 10 days of school.

On Wednesday, Hedy Chang, who was recently honored by President Obama as a "Champion of Change" visited New Britain to share her approach on getting students to come to class.

"It only takes a couple days here and there to actually add up to being at risk for attendance, and so once you start monitoring the data and helping families realize that their kids are at risk, they can help to make sure their kids are there," said Chang, National School Attendance Authority.

School officials have been working on the truancy problem and they've been able to decrease the amount of chronic absence by about 22 percent over the last few months.