Attendance Awareness Campaign Update
A project led by Attendance Works
August 15, 2019
Calling All Superintendents!
The Attendance Awareness Campaign convening partners are calling on Superintendents across the country to sign on to the national Superintendents Call to Action.


Participating Superintendents will raise their voices and lead the effort to improve attendance starting in the early grades in their community by:
  • Making clear that improved student attendance is one of your top priorities
  • Using local data to drive positive, problem-solving approaches to reducing chronic absence
  • Reaching out to make improved student attendance a broadly owned and widely shared civic priority by engaging families, elected leaders, local businesses, service providers and others.
To demonstrate the widespread support for the Call to Action, we will publish a press release listing all the superintendents who have signed on and include their names on our website
  • We have tools and resources to help Superintendents make their efforts a success! Find the resources.
  • Invite your Superintendent to sign the call to action! Download our template letter.
 
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Attendance Works! 


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Attendance Tools

Announcing: New "We Belong in School" themed social media images! Find them with sample tweets and all of our AAC social media sample tools ---  including some in Spanish ---  on our AAC 2019 website

The beginning of school is a good time to build capacity by establishing a process to honor good and improved attendance. Especially in the early grades, an incentives strategy can help improve the accuracy of attendance data since the students, themselves, are likely to help ensure teachers are aware of who is and isn't in class. Find sample incentives.

But, keep in mind not every incentive program works to encourage daily attendance. Senior researchers Rekha Balu at MDRC and Stacy Ehrlich at NORC at the University of Chicago have developed a framework to help school staff think about how ---  and when ---  to use incentives to improve student attendance. Read our blog and find the research here
We Belong in School!

A rural community in Washoe County, NV introduced a district-wide SEL program to enable every student to have a positive connection with a teacher or adult at school each day. A few years later, the district's attendance rate, student achievement, and graduation rates have improved. Learn more about their "Every Child, by Name and Face, to Graduation" initiative via Edutopia
Share Your Story

Do you have your cameras ready? We are looking for your Attendance Awareness Campaign stories and images that show how you engaged people around school attendance with the start of the new school year. Please send us your photos or graphics and a brief description of your activities using the form on our Attendance Awareness Campaign website, and we will post it! Learn more.  
Twitter Chat: Preparing for a New Year!
Wednesday, August 21, 2019, 3-4pm ET / 12-1pm PT

Join the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, Attendance Works and Foundations, Inc. for an interactive Twitter chat on what schools and communities can do to reduce chronic absence this school year.  Use #GLReading and # SchoolEveryDay to follow and engage during the conversation!
Hosts and Co-Hosts Twitter Handles to Engage:
  • Attendance Works (@AttendanceWorks)
  • Campaign for Grade-Level Reading (@readingby3rd)
  • Foundations, Inc. (@Foundations_Inc)
Tweet to Join!
Join @attendanceworks @readingby3rd @foundations_inc on Wednesday, 8/21 3pm - 4pm ET to chat about how creating a welcoming environment at the start of the school year can improve student reading, achievement & attendance. #SchoolEveryDay #GLReading
AAC Webinars

Over 2,600 people registered to view our latest webinar, Open Doors: Create a Healthy School Climate!

ICYMI: We've posted the link to the webinar recording. Why not plan a viewing party? Download the presentation slides and a discussion guide and view with colleagues. Or share the recording link. Find it here: https://www.attendanceworks.org/resources/webinars/

Save the date! The final webinar for AAC 2019 will take place on September 10: A Place Where We Belong: Improving Conditions for Learning, at 2-3:30pm ET / 11am-12:30pm PT. We will look at how poor attendance can be addressed through improving Conditions for Learning. Registration link coming soon!
New Partners!

This week we welcome our new AAC State Partner:  State Education Resource Center of Connecticut

Partner Spotlight

FutureEd is an independent, solution-oriented think tank at Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy. Its areas of study include chronic absenteeism in state accountability systems.

Attendance Works and FutureEd collaborated on the new Attendance Playbook that describes 20+ proven, research-based strategies that can be adapted to state and local circumstances and implemented quickly and cost effectively under ESSA's deadlines. Download the Playbook
Corporate Attendance Sponsors

We want to send a big thank you to this year's Attendance Awareness Corporate Sponsors. Find out more on our webpage

Attendance in the News

New plan to address chronic absenteeism in Sarasota, Manatee, DeSoto and Charlotte schools, Herald-Tribune, August 9, 2019


Spread the Word!

Students are more likely to come to school if they feel safe, supported and engaged. Join the Attendance Awareness Campaign! https://awareness.attendanceworks.org/ #schooleveryday

Good atte ndance in PreK & K builds academic & social skills for the future:   bit.ly/1oqfID7  #schooleveryday
Campaign Convening Partners
See the full list of Attendance Awareness Campaign partners here.
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