Low family income is associated with poor academic achievement among children. Higher rates of school absence and tardiness may be one mechanism through which low family income impacts children's academic success. This study examines relations between family income, as measured by receipt of free or reduced-price lunch, school attendance, and academic achievement among a diverse sample of children from kindergarten to 4th grade (N = 35,419) using both random and within-child fixed-effects models. Generally, results suggest that the receipt of free or reduced-price lunch and duration of receipt have small but positive associations with school absences and tardies. Poor attendance patterns predict poorer grades, with absences more associated with grades than tardies. Given the small associations between receipt of free or reduced-price lunch and school attendance, and between the duration of receipt of free or reduced-price lunch and children's grades, results do not provide strong evidence that absences and tardies meaningfully attenuate relations between the duration of low family income and student achievement; poorer attendance and persistent low income independently predict poorer grades. Implications for policy and future research are discussed.

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Concern about kindergarten retention is on the rise within the current climate of high-stakes testing and escalating kindergarten expectations. Kindergarten retention has been linked in previous research to various risk factors such as poverty, low maternal education, single parent status, minority status, English language learner (ELL) status, and male gender. However, these factors are also associated with poor school readiness and low kindergarten performance--the very reasons children are retained in the 1st place. This study teases apart unique and combined predictors of delayed entry into kindergarten and kindergarten retention with a large (n = 13,191) ethnically diverse, at-risk sample of children. Delayed kindergarten entry was rare for this sample but more likely among boys, native English speakers, those with poorer school readiness, less maternal education, and greater resources, and those who attended childcare rather than public school prekindergarten (pre-K) at age 4 years. Boys were more likely to be retained in kindergarten, but only because of their poorer school readiness. After strong effects for age 4 school readiness were controlled, only poverty, ELL status, and preschool program attendance predicted retention. ELL students were less likely to be retained than were native speakers, and those who attended public school pre-K programs were less likely to be retained, compared with those in childcare at age 4 years. After controlling for children's actual performance in kindergarten their 1st time, Caucasian children and children with lower language and social skills at age 4 years were more likely to repeat kindergarten.

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