Connor Moore skipped senior skip day.
He was busy punctually attending each of his classes at Seguin High School, as usual. With just a few more weeks until graduation, Moore had his eyes on an achievement 13 years in the making.
He hasn’t missed a class since the day he started kindergarten.
During third grade at Ashworth Elementary, Moore found himself halfway through the school’s challenge to keep perfect attendance through sixth grade. Each student who finished elementary absence-free would have their names inscribed on a plaque.
Come seventh grade, he was one of them. The streak has snowballed ever since.
Once he made it to junior high, Moore’s parents motivated him to keep his perfect attendance one year at a time. The goal was his idea, but his family, friends and teachers made it possible, he said.
“I’m ready for it to be over,” Connor’s father, Mike Moore, said about his son’s schooling.
The sentiment is common among parents of graduating seniors, but for the Moores, the relief goes deeper.
For over a decade, the family has planned their lives around ensuring Connor keeps his attendance record unbroken. They’ve rearranged vacations, threaded through orthodontist appointments and delayed family funerals.
The deceased wouldn’t have been offended, Mike said. They all knew how important attendance was to Connor.
At times, the operation to keep his attendance perfect looked like a scene from “The Truman Show.” During busy seasons, the family used location sharing app Life360 to make sure Connor didn’t accidentally oversleep. Dentists were also in on it, scheduling appointments to accommodate Connor’s class schedule.
“It definitely was overwhelming at times,” Connor said. “But in the end, now that I’m here, it was good.”
For all the tactics it’s taken to keep the streak, there’s also been a touch of luck.
“He rarely gets sick,” said Celeste Cervantes, Connor’s mother. “It’s like his body’s conditioned.”
Sickness sets in for Connor at the start of every summer, Thanksgiving and Christmas break, but never during the school year, Cervantes said.
In 2020, Connor’s freshman year, COVID-19 presented the biggest challenge to his attendance, he said. Education went virtual, creating both mental and practical challenges to being present.
After classes resumed, many students nationwide struggled to find motivation to consistently go to school. Chronic absenteeism, a term for when a student misses 10% or more of a school year, doubled from 13% in 2019 to 26% in 2023, according to data compiled by the American Enterprise Institute.
Connor noticed his peers not taking school seriously, but he said their apathy was nothing new. The pandemic enabled students to do less work, and many seized the opportunity.
“Teachers were sometimes very lenient toward grading,” he said. “They wanted the kids to do good. They didn’t know what they were doing, and the students didn’t know either.”
Between his job, good grades and involvement in band (he’s a section leader), Connor has had to be intentional about checking in on his mental health, he said. Through being mindful of his time on weekends, he’s been able to find a balance between achieving his goals and self-care.
Connor plans to study at Tarrant County College, then transfer to Texas A&M University for a degree in forensic science.
“I think that I’ll keep doing it,” he said about perfect attendance. “I’ve seen what it can do for me here at high school, and college is an even higher level.”
Kathy Kaju, Connor’s third-grade teacher, struggles to think of him without breaking into a laugh. He was one of the funniest third graders she’s met, Kaju said.
Kaju, who now teaches at Webb Elementary, remembers first encouraging Connor to pursue putting his name on the sixth-grade plaque.
Nine years later, she’s proud to see his name on a diploma, still having never missed roll call.
Drew Shaw is a reporting fellow for the Arlington Report. Contact him at drew.shaw@fortworthreport.org or @shawlings601. At the Arlington Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
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