From simple to slick, school districts in the region use a variety of tactics to get kids to school.

Students receive handwritten notes from principals complimenting them on attendance. Administrators call parents regularly to remind them of attendance issues.

Other schools reward kids with pencils or pizza parties, or popcorn for an entire class.

Sometimes it's a bit more high-tech: an iPod, a shiny new bicycle, even a shiny new car. The perks offered to boost attendance are no joke.

Of course, children do better in school when they come regularly. That seems pretty clear.

But school districts profit, too, when their students are present. Literally.

Schools get most of their money from what the state calls Average Daily Attendance, or the average number of students present each day of the school year. ADA money amounts to about $40 per student, said Kim Clements, a California Department of Education consultant on attendance issues.

And under No Child Left Behind, schools and districts can be penalized for low attendance rates.

In times such as these, with dropping enrollments, a state budget crisis and families leaving California for less expensive parts of the country, enticing kids to come to school has become more important than ever for public school districts. They simply can't afford to lose any more students or money.

Elk Grove Unified, which had zooming enrollment for more than a decade, now anticipates a decline over the next few years. The district has worked hard to get kids excited about coming to school, rolling out a districtwide K-12 campaign two years ago.

Students have participated in poster and rhyme contests, with winning entries displayed throughout the district.

But the senior attendance campaign offered a prize many seniors may find hard to resist. For every month of perfect attendance, a student gets his or her name placed in a pool for a drawing. The more months of perfect attendance, the more times the student's name is put in the pool, upping the chances that he or she may win $20,000 toward the purchase of a new car from the Elk Grove Automall.

From 2006-07 to 2007-08, the district upped attendance by .14 percent, yielding $400,915 in increased ADA funds, said the district communications director, Elizabeth Graswich.

"I don't know if we can top Elk Grove," said Linda Wilkinson, principal of Bannon Creek Elementary in the Natomas Unified School District. "But … we have a motto, 'Whatever it takes,' and we hope our students, staff and families really all live for that motto."

The school, which teaches 600 kindergarten through fifth-grade students, began an attendance campaign last year – "You Gotta Show to Grow."

Wilkinson talked with parents, explaining to them how attendance is linked to both student achievement and state dollars.

Every week, she messaged parents with attendance numbers for the week, using a phone-messaging system called Ed Connect, she said.

"I was making sure the parents were on board," she said. "And I got a lot of positive feedback from those weekly attendance reports."

Wilkinson and her staff members also made sure to celebrate students and let them know they are important as well, she said.

"We're tackling it from all avenues," she said.

Classes with perfect attendance for a month get to host the school mascot, in the form of a big stuffed beaver.

"I make home visits, too," Wilkinson said, adding that students feel valued when teachers or principals let them know they note their absence.

Even the little things count, she said, so the school changed their tardy slips to be more friendly and say, "We're so glad you are here."

Wilkinson said the extra effort has worked, as the school increased its attendance rate by 1.5 percent overall in 2007-08, to somewhere between 95.5 percent and 96 percent.

Galt Joint Union Elementary schools use many of the same techniques as Bannon, but add popcorn.

Classes receive a bag of popcorn every day a class has no absences or tardies. Once a class collects seven bags, the students are given a popcorn party.

Since the popcorn parties began two years ago, Valley Oaks Elementary increased its attendance rate from 95 percent to 96 percent from 2005-06 to 2006-07 and saw a significant drop in tardies and early checkouts, said Principal Annette Lane.

Roseville's George Cirby Elementary School put a new spin on attendance incentive. Students who attended class every day from Oct. 1, 2007, to May 2, were awarded a new bicycle. Fifty-eight students who met the perfect attendance challenge received a sparkling red, blue and white bike at the end of the school year.

Principal David Dominguez lauded the bike incentive program for almost doubling the number of students with flawless attendance and increasing overall attendance from 94 percent to 97 percent. He said the accomplishment is noteworthy given the high number of economically disadvantaged students at Cirby compared with other schools in the Roseville area.

Students from lower- income families may face more challenges in getting to school.

In the Folsom Cordova Unified School District, Theodore Judah and Navigator elementary schools honor students with exemplary attendance over a trimester with an assembly and award, spokeswoman Heather McGowan said.

Folsom Lake High, an alternative high school, awards students with perfect attendance with lunch, cookies and cocoa, she said.

Many of the students may have had attendance or truancy problems before, so students are recognized every month for perfect monthly attendance.

"The positive reinforcement is more frequent," McGowan said.

Call The Bee's Melissa Nix, (916) 478-2653. Lakiesha McGhee contributed to this report.