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Inspiring Change Through Bright Spots!
While many things have changed, the basics of how to motivate attendance and participation in school remain steady. During the 2024-25 school year, we saw schools, districts and states adopt effective practices that led to improvements. In our August 6th webinar, staff with Kansas City Kansas Public Schools and the West Virginia State Department of Education shared their approaches and attendance gains.
Have you used the data from the prior year to see which schools in your district reduced chronic absence or had comparatively better results? The next step is to engage in qualitative data gathering to identify what works to improve attendance in your community. Learn more in the What Works in Our Community toolkit.
Once you find out what is working, share the results. Consider inviting school leaders to talk about their successes in district-wide professional development. Or write about it. For example, see this bright spot fact sheet and these stories about Sanger High School, Reedley High School and Ramona High School. These bright spots will inspire local educators and the public by showing that chronic absence can be solved.
Invite the media to cover your school or district’s accomplishments. A reporter wrote about the attendance improvements in one district among kindergartners in three articles, including Kindergartners are missing a lot of school. This district has a fix.
State and local superintendents will share how they are using collaborative, data-informed approaches to improve attendance and engagement at an event sponsored by EdTrust, Nat Malkus with AEI and Attendance Works. Join us virtually or in person on Aug. 21, 3-4:50 pm ET to hear what is working as we renew the call to cut chronic absence by 50% over five years. Register today!
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