AUSTIN (KXAN) – School districts lose millions of dollars every year in state funding by students not going to school.

As a result, Friday morning superintendents from a dozen local districts like AISD, Eanes, and Bastrop are getting together to talk about ways to get kids to attend more often.

It’s all part of the annual Blueprint for Educational Change Summit taking place at the ATT Conference Center.

“One of the things we know around teacher effectiveness is you can have the finest teachers in every single classroom and it doesn’t matter if the kids aren’t there it just doesn’t matter,” said Hannah Gourey, Blueprint Director.

Since 2008 the group has made some big strides in improving education.

For example, when they started these summits they worked to find a way to get students better prepared for high tech jobs.

That resulted in more engineering focused classes at schools like Akins High School.

Now Concordia University is looking to start its own engineering program.

The E3 Alliance puts on this annual conference and believes involving not only school leaders from local districts and universities is important but also those in high tech industries and community based organizations.

The thought process is – it takes a community to get kids the best education possible.

This year the focus is on attendance.

“For the average student to have three more days of attendance over the course of a single year could bring as much as $34 million dollars back into our school systems here in Central Texas alone,” said Gourey.

So how do you get kids to attend more?

One idea that will be pitched Friday is educating parents.

By letting them know about the funding districts are supplied just by their child attending it may lead to parents not scheduling appointments or vacation during school hours.