This study looks at attendance in the early grades of elementary school. In particular, the authors focus on students enrolled in Pre-Kindergarten (PreK) and Kindergarten (K). They follow these young students over several years to determine their pattern of chronic absence (CA), defined as missing more than one-ninth of days enrolled, and their later attendance and academic outcomes. One area of concern for Baltimore is the consistent underperformance of children who were in home care prior to enrolling in K. The authors were surprised to find that these students shared similar demographic characteristics with the Head Start students in our study. They discovered that these students may have met the economic qualifications for Head Start in that they qualified for "free" meals in K. A concerted effort needs to be made to determine why they are not attending a pre-school program, and to ensure that all qualified children are enrolled in Head Start or City Schools PreK. As a result of their analyses the authors would like to recommend that: (1) MSDE report average daily attendance (ADA) and CA rates for students in PreK and K; (2) A concerted effort among relevant Baltimore City agencies should aim to maximize enrollment in Head Start and City Schools PreK programs; (3) City Schools work with Head Start to develop family education and outreach to emulate the high attendance rates seen among Head Start graduates; and (4) There be monitoring of student attendance as well as of school-wide attendance, examining both ADA and CA as important indicators. Appended are: (1) Methodological Issues; (2) Characteristics of Students Entering PreK in 2006-07; (3) Characteristics of Students Entering Kindergarten in 2007-08; (4) Characteristics of Students Entering PreK in 2008-09; (5) Regression Models for Students Entering PreK in 2006-07; (6) Regression Models for Students Entering Kindergarten in 2007-08; (7) Regression Models for Students Entering PreK in 2008-09; and (8) Charts of Student Enrollment Over Time. (Contains 3 figures, 40 tables and 3 charts.) [Additional funding for this paper was provided by the Open Society Institute-Baltimore and the Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation.]