Contact: Susie Winfield
Published by Parker Publishers
Author Susie Winfield, a former truancy liaison who managed attendance across 32 schools, outlines intervention and incentive models drawn from direct fieldwork with students and families
Holly Ridge, NC, 4/29/2026. On any given school day, an estimated 200,000 or more students are absent from schools across the United States. Susie Winfield, a former Attendance Specialist with experience spanning multiple school districts, has published Count Me Present: Combating the Truancy Epidemic (Parker Publishers, 2026), a practical guide for educators and administrators seeking to reduce chronic absenteeism through structured intervention.
Winfield’s professional background includes service in the U.S. Army, a career in law enforcement, and more than three decades in school based truancy intervention. In her school roles, she worked directly with families to identify the causes of student absence and developed individualized intervention plans. The book translates that fieldwork into a replicable framework covering school culture assessment, extracurricular programs as accountability tools, attendance law education for parents, data tracking methodology, graduation cohort management, mentoring structures, and community partnership development.
One of the book’s central arguments is that truancy is not a disciplinary problem but a symptom of broader issues affecting families, including financial hardship, lack of awareness of attendance laws, generational patterns around education, and gaps in school culture. Winfield writes that in her experience, she never encountered a case where a student’s absence was justified during school hours, but that nearly every case involved an identifiable barrier that could be addressed through targeted intervention and transparent communication between the school and the family.
The book includes detailed case studies with altered names to protect privacy. Among them: a student whose parent claimed seizure like symptoms as the reason for chronic absence, a behavior that stopped immediately when confronted directly; families in the southern United States who routinely delayed school enrollment until after Labor Day despite early registration availability; and a group of over 75 middle school girls whose attendance and academic performance improved after Winfield formed cheerleading and dance teams with daily attendance as a mandatory condition of participation. That program involved roughly 25 percent of the school’s student population of 325 and produced measurable gains in school wide attendance data.
Winfield also presents an attendance data model she developed, illustrated through four semester diagrams showing how a school’s attendance culture can shift from 8 percent of students needing intervention in the first semester to a majority of students missing three or more days by the fourth semester if no interventions are implemented. She argues that schools should act when any student reaches three unexcused absences rather than waiting for patterns to worsen.
The book addresses the intersection of attendance and the graduation cohort, noting that students who are chronically absent without intervention are at elevated risk of dropping out. Winfield recommends that high schools assign a dedicated staff member to track every student from 9th grade enrollment through expected graduation, including those who transfer, become incarcerated, or require homebound instruction.
Winfield also discusses what she calls generational apathy toward the high school diploma, describing students who feared their educational achievement would alienate them from family members who had not graduated. She writes about encountering high school students reading at a first grade level and sending a letter to her superintendent about the issue.
The foreword is written by Jeremy Jarmon, Winfield’s son. Winfield holds a Bachelor of Science in Organizational Management, is certified in Urban Ministry, and lives with her husband Steven. The book is dedicated to her grandchildren, Jeremiah and Kinsley, and to all school staff who support children’s daily attendance.
Book Information
Title: Count Me Present: Combating the Truancy Epidemic
Author: Susie Winfield
Genre: Nonfiction / Education
Publisher: Parker Publishers
Susie Winfield is available for interviews.
For Any Media Inquiries, Please Contact Sia Stone
Email: sia@parkerpublishers.com
Phone no: +1 (689) 304-8480
