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Summer is over and kids are back to school. This can be a challenging time for students, a new routine and meeting new teachers can be overwhelming. Having reliable mentors at school, every day, looking out for these kids, has drastically improved students becoming chronically absent, and the kids want to go to school because of our amazing mentors. Our Attendance Matters® Mentoring Program is paving the way to helping kids show up to school every day and staying on track to graduate.
Our mentoring program has changed slightly from last year, but our commitment to enhancing student success has only grown stronger. We are excited to share that we are now have mentors in both local elementary and middle schools as. For the 2025/26 school year United Way of Benton & Franklin Counties has hired 6 mentors to work with Students at 6 local schools, pairing two mentors per school district.
"After funding was cut in April of 2025 for the AmeriCorps program and our former members who served as mentors, we knew we needed to pivot our Attendance Matters® program so that we could continue to maintain consistency and support to the students we serve," said Asta Bonheyo, Community Impact Director. "Although the program has had some changes based on the current climate of funding, the goal remains the same - to promote student connection, consistency in relationships, and continued reduction in chronic absenteeism," Bonheyo said.
During this upcoming school year you will find our mentors at Amistad ES and Park MS in the Kennewick School District, at Robinson ES and Ochoa MS in the Pasco School District and at Jefferson ES and Chief Jo MS in the Richland School District. We can't wait to share success stories with you from our mentors and the students they connect with.
We are also offering an Attendance Matters® Toolkit for parents and school staff in all the districts we serve to have access to. The toolkit plays a big role in our program to educate the community about regular school attendance and address absenteeism, it's also help schools promote attendance. While we are not able, to have mentors in every school in our area, yet, we are able to offer our toolkit to every school in our area.
Learn More About Our Attendance Matters® Mentoring Program
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