Last modified: Thursday, July 3, 2008 2:12 AM EDT For this grad, perfect attendance runs in the family By Emily Shrader McClatchy Newspapers How many school days have you been absent this year? How many school days were you absent last year? How many school days have you been absent since kindergarten? Sabrina Scott's answer: zero. The 18-year-old graduate of Pitman High School in Turlock, Calif., says she never missed a single day of school in her life, plus she's had perfect attendance at summer school for two years straight. She has been tardy for class only about eight times within the past 13 years. That makes her a model teen in the eyes of school districts throughout the nation, many of which stepped up their attention to attendance in light of the federal No Child Left Behind law, which considers attendance when evaluating and funding schools. Some schools offer incentives like new cars for perfect attendance. Others have given away iPods, computers and cash. Sabrina didn't need the promise of a prize to achieve perfect attendance. For her, it's all in the family. Sabrina's mom, Debbie Scott, also was present every single day all the way from kindergarten to graduation, not to mention through 10 years of summer school. And now Sabrina's sisters, freshman Stephanie and sixth-grader Samantha, are keeping the tradition alive with perfect attendance. So what possessed Sabrina to trek to school every single day for 13 years, despite minor colds here and there? "The more days you're in school, the better off you are on not missing any homework assignments," said Debbie Scott. "Also, it starts you off on a good record for the real world and the place of employment you will choose." Sabrina agrees. "It shows you are persistent and dependable for the future," she said. Sabrina's achievement can be pretty hard to believe for her classmates. "At first, they don't believe me, then once they do believe me, they start making fun of me," she said. Any remaining nonbelievers were set straight at Pitman's end-of-year Pride Awards presentation, which kicked off with Dean of Students Ryan Smith honoring Sabrina as the sole senior with perfect attendance this year and verbally recognizing her uninterrupted K-12 attendance. Smith has seen many students with good attendance, he said, but perfect attendance is "very uncommon." School administrators are taking steps to help all students realize that perfect attendance is something to be proud of. If you walk down a high school hallway, you'll notice stickers on classroom doors that read, "Every day counts!" These stickers are part of the Stanislaus County, Calif., Office of Education's newly adopted plan to convince students it's important to show up for class. Area businesses donated gift cards, movie tickets, iPods, digital cameras and other rewards that were passed out to students with good attendance at the end of this school year as part of the program. Plus, students from participating high schools who missed three or fewer days of school had a chance to win a 2007 Pontiac G6. The lucky winner was Armando Jose Pena, a freshman at Johansen High School in Modesto, Calif. Pena, who has a 3.5 grade-point average, had perfect attendance this year. Sabrina has a 4.0 grade-point average. She says the better your attendance is, the better your chance for success. "I think you gain more knowledge from being there every day than if you missed days here and there," she said. Another advantage to regular attendance: it often counts for part of your grade in a particular class. Not attending school regularly has long-term consequences. As the Every Day Counts plan states, "Poor attendance is a major indicator of student disengagement and may lead to a student dropping out of school permanently." In other words, once you miss a day of school, you get behind. If you get far enough behind, you could get discouraged and never finish high school. Not so for Sabrina, who graduated this month. She's proud of her attendance record. "A lot of people are amazed or in disbelief," she said. Emily Shrader is a sophomore at Enochs High School in Modesto, Calif.