Attendance Awareness Campaign Update for October 16, 2025

Attendance Awareness Campaign Update

A project led by Attendance Works

October 16, 2025

Boosting Attendance is a Long Game

Thanks everyone for participating in Attendance Awareness Month! We loved seeing whole-school assemblies, classroom photos, beautiful bulletin boards, poster contests and more to raise excitement around being engaged at school. As we leave September behind, we want to remind everyone that improving student attendance and engagement is a year-long campaign. Keep up the great work!

We were delighted to see proclamations issued throughout the country designating September (or the start of school) as Attendance Awareness Month, and committing many localities and states to year-round actions to improve attendance and engagement. We've described some on our website.

We are incredibly grateful to the Imagine Learning Foundation for investing in our continued collaboration with SchoolHouse Connection to expand on the key strategies we identified for reducing chronic absence among students experiencing homelessness. This year we’ll create a toolkit to support district implementation and a brief aimed at state education agencies. In 2026 we’ll offer webinars focused on these new resources.

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Attendance Awareness Webinars

We had a fantastic turnout for the 2025 AAC webinar series. Each webinar features bright spot stories and local educators who are making great strides in reducing their chronic absence rates. Please share the recording with your districts, schools and community partners! Find the recording for all 4 webinars on our website, along with a tailored webinar discussion guide.

Attendance Tool Spotlight

Search Institute’s Six Shifts for Better Family Engagement shows that richer school-family partnerships don’t start with invites — they grow through six relationship-centered shifts like honoring family strengths and building mutual trust.

Messages crafted for specific recipients, rather than one-size-fits-all, drive stronger engagement and response. Harvard University released Improve Attendance with Personalized Messages, a step-by-step guide for school staff with strategies for tailoring communications sent via email, text, robocall or letters by mail.

Absences typically increase right after the fall and winter holidays, when the weather turns cold and wet, and during spring as the school year ends. We have a variety of resources and suggestions for schools on our website to help students stay in school when absences spike. Find updated family letters to send before Thanksgiving and the December holiday near the bottom of our website page.

Attendance Celebrations

Prince William County Public Schools celebrated Attendance Awareness Month with national recognition for its efforts to reduce chronic absence. The district lowered its rate by 6.7% earning an invitation to join the National Attendance and Engagement Meta Network.

Pontiac Elementary in Columbia, South Carolina, celebrated Attendance Awareness Month with their students signing a pledge saying that if they are healthy, they will come to school on time every day!

Spark SF Public Schools teamed up with the San Francisco Giants and broadcast a scoreboard video message at the Giants vs Dodgers game on 9/13, reminding tens of thousands of fans that showing up to school every day matters.

Erica Peterson, parent and executive director of the California Association of Supervisors of Child Welfare and Attendance shares in a video why consistent attendance matters, and offers three tips to help create smoother mornings for families.

Find more AAC celebrations on our website.

State News

The Nebraska Department of Education released Impact of Chronic Absenteeism on Academic Outcomes in Nebraska, an analysis of statewide chronic absence, including the characteristics of chronically absent students and implications for educational outcomes. The state has relatively similar rates of chronic absence across all its 93 counties.

In Pennsylvania, the Pittsburgh Steelers announced a partnership with the Stay in the Game! Attendance Network, making the Steelers the first professional NFL team to partner with SITG! outside of Ohio. The partnership includes A+ Schools to pilot the initiative in eight local schools. Check out the short video.

New Research

EdTrust reviewed 23 state education websites to evaluate attendance data systems and policies, investment strategies, and discipline policies and practices. The results are published in a new report, How are States Handling Chronic Absenteeism?

District Leadership PD

We’re excited to share that, thanks to generous foundation funding, we are able to offer enrollment in our Professional Leadership Attendance Network (PLAN) at a deeply reduced rate of $3,000 per participant (normally $10,000). PLAN is not a webinar series — it is an intensive, six-month professional network designed to equip district leaders with the tools and systems needed to effectively reduce chronic absence. Learn more here and contact Lorri Hobson (Lorri@attendanceworks.org) and Zach Freeman (Zach@attendanceworks.org)

Partner Spotlight

We’d like to take a moment to thank all of our Attendance Awareness Campaign partners. Their ongoing support makes it possible for us to make a lasting difference.

Campaign Convening Partners

See the full list of Attendance Awareness Partners here.

Campaign Sponsors

We are especially appreciative of this year’s campaign sponsors.

Attendance in the News

When the Outside World Feeds Fear, Student Peer Support Becomes a Lifeline, LA School Report, October 11, 2025

School offers hikes instead of detention. Teachers are seeing results, Washington Post, October 8, 2025

Louisiana absenteeism rates dip, but remain higher than pre-pandemic levels, Verite News, September 30, 2025

Stay in the Game! Attendance Network reaches 61 districts across Ohio during Attendance Awareness Month, Cleveland Browns, September 30, 2025

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