Attendance Awareness Campaign Update for March 12, 2026

Photo by Allison Shelley/The Verbatim Agency for EDUimages

Attendance Awareness Campaign Update

A project led by Attendance Works

March 12, 2026

Prepping for Attendance Awareness Campaign 2026!

Join us on April 1 for the first, free AAC webinar as we launch Attendance Awareness Campaign 2026. Your Presence Matters! — our theme for AAC 2026 — lifts up our focus on building trusting relationships with students, families and communities. It highlights the importance of listening to students and families to learn and leverage their strengths, as well as understand their challenges getting to school.

Stay tuned for updated AAC resources. We are revising the Key Messages to provide you with talking points for use with families, students and community partners. We will soon share the 2026 AAC badge. Join us and more than 110 national and state partners working to bring more communities into our movement by signing up for updates.

Donate now

Join the movement to get more kids back in school and engaged. Donate today!

Webinars

The 2026 free webinar series will emphasize prevention, and actions that strengthen the positive conditions for learning schools and districts can put in place that are effective for reducing chronic absence. The series will offer actions appropriate for each season of a typical school year.

Portraying what works, each webinar will feature inspiring speakers from a variety of communities and organizations who will share their expertise and experiences in improving attendance, engagement and achievement.

Our first free webinar, Nurture Belonging in the Spring, takes place on Wednesday, April 1, at noon PT / 3 p.m. ET. Everyone who registers will receive a link to the webinar recording and presentation slides.

April 1, 2026, Webinar 1: Nurture Belonging in the Spring
May 13, 2026, Webinar 2: Engage and Build Bridges in the Summer
August 5, 2026, Webinar 3: Create Community in the Fall
September 23, 2026, Webinar 4: Ensure Support All Year Long

Excited about participating in AAC 2026? Help us get the word out! We’ve provided a sample social media message below.

📢 The 2026 Attendance Awareness Campaign is kicking off with a conversation about building a positive school climate that nurtures belonging, trust and engagement. Ensuring belonging in the spring helps lay a strong foundation for a year-long approach.

🔗 Register for all 4 webinars: https://www.attendanceworks.org/resources/webinars/

Attendance Resources

Young children learn best through hands-on exploration, experimenting and connecting with peers and adults. How can educators in pre-K and kindergarten develop classrooms that include tech-free spaces and ensure that, when technology is used, it offers opportunities for “conversation, collaboration and reflection”? Read more in Edutopia.

In a Q&A with FutureEd, author Jenny Anderson shares insights from original research and interviews with students about their disengagement from school and offers suggestions for how families, educators and policymakers can address this trend.

Spring colds are on the rise. Help families to understand when a child can return to school after being ill. Download our handout for families developed in collaboration with Kaiser Permanente and the National Association of School Nurses. Interested in other handouts designed to help prevent illness-related absences? Find them here.

We love the Chronically Present, Every Day Matters awareness campaign developed by NYC Public Schools. The campaign posters feature "Barty Backpack" and a message that’s short, concise, and empowers families with informed guidance. View a short video, and learn more on NYCPS’s attendance page.

Research Spotlight

New research from Learning Heroes and TNTP comparing student attendance from 2018-19 to 2021-22 finds a school’s pre-pandemic family engagement had a greater impact on chronic absence than poverty. This suggests that when a school invests in building strong relationships with families, it may help mitigate the impact of poverty on student outcomes.

The same study found that bright spot schools — those that consistently outperform expectations on family engagement — had four distinguishing factors that set them apart from similar schools: mindsets, leadership, communication and relationships. Read the full report or the two-page summary.

Poor conditions such as leaking roofs and inadequate temperature regulation of school sites are linked to poor health, lower test scores and higher rates of chronic absence, according to a new study. Researchers looked at data on the physical conditions of school facilities, absenteeism and test scores for 1,266 K-12 schools in Maryland. Black and Hispanic students were significantly more likely to attend these schools. Read Cracks in the Foundation.

Campaign Convening Partners

See the full list of Attendance Awareness Partners here.

Campaign Sponsors

A special thanks to the corporate sponsors who have already committed to supporting our 2026 Attendance Awareness Campaign. Their investment makes it possible for us to provide you with free strategies and materials.

Attendance in the News

Chronic absences in early grades linked to higher risk of district transfers, study shows, EdSource, February 24, 2026

3 Driving Questions to Create a Sense of Belonging in Schools, Education Week, February 24, 2026

Joy, partnership and play create belonging and increase attendance, Youth Today, February 24, 2026

Attendance Works is a nonprofit, national and state initiative. Our mission is to advance success in school and beyond for all students by reducing chronic absence. Find free downloadable resources, research, consulting services and more on our website: www.attendanceworks.org

For more information contact: info@attendanceworks.org