Kansas City, Mo. ? A program offering gift certificates to students who attend summer school apparently will be a financial bonanza for the Kansas City School District, as well as the students.

The district began this year offering summer school students gift certificates of $100 for perfect attendance, $75 for missing only one day and $50 for missing only two days.

An increase in attendance, which officials attribute to the rewards program, will pay off for the district, which had expected to receive $5.4 million in state aid based on previous attendance in its programs.

Instead, Sugar Lee Lewis, director of summer school, said the district could receive up to $10 million in state aid because of the increased attendance. The district budgeted $6 million in costs for summer school and figures it will spend about $600,000 on gift certificates.

Preliminary figures indicate that up to 6,000 of the 9,500 summer school students could qualify for a certificate.

More than 3,000 of the students are likely to receive $100 gift certificates. The district will receive $1,300 in state aid for each student with perfect attendance.

Edison Schools Inc., the for-profit school management company that operates some charter schools in Kansas City, began offering summer-school incentives in 1999. The Kansas City School District offered the gift certificates for the first time this summer.

The 52 Edison-operated summer schools in Missouri offered incentives, including bicycles, video games, stereos and gift certificates. Other Missouri districts, including Liberty and Independence, also offered incentives.

Kansas schools generally do not offer the incentives. Unlike Missouri, Kansas does not offer state aid for summer-school attendance.

The students in Kansas City readily admit the certificates were a big incentive for attending summer school. In one elementary class of 24 students, 22 said they would receive a certificate. Some students said their families had postponed vacations so they could get the certificates.

Gladstone Elementary School second-grader Micah Beaman persuaded his mother to let him skip a church camp she had already paid for.

“I wanted the money,” Beaman said. “I don’t get paid for going to camp.”

The district now plans to buy more than $600,000 in gift certificates to Wal-Mart, the Jones Store and Independence Center, which offered discounts for the bulk purchases.