Attendance Awareness Campaign Update

A project led by Attendance Works

September 22, 2022

Early Warning:

Using Data from September!

Chronic absence data at the school level is a gold mine. When school starts, data from the prior year can help alert educators to which students might need extra support to start the year off right. Keep in mind, if a large group of students from a particular grade, demographic background, etc., are missing too many days, it is a sign that you need to better understand the barriers they face in order to determine solutions.

Research in Baltimore shows that half the students who miss 2-4 days in September go on to miss nearly a month of school! Educators should monitor student absences in the first month of school and take early action if needed. Find tips for using data in the Showing Up Matters for R.E.A.L. toolkit.

Interventions at your school for today’s high levels of absenteeism may require additional support. Find volunteering, tutoring, mentoring, and national service opportunities in your community, using the new READY SET, a campaign developed in collaboration by the National Partnership for Student Success (NPSS), the CAA Foundation, MENTOR, VolunteerMatch and AmeriCorps. 

Join the movement to get more kids back in school and engaged. Our ability to provide free resources depends on contributions from people like you. Donate today.

Small to mid-sized school districts will find our Free Data Tools helpful for analyzing their attendance data to see if missing school is a significant problem. The tools are designed to work with a school’s student information system.  

Daily attendance routines, created at home or in school, can reduce stress for students and families and create a sense of safety and security. Send home a family handout with tips for how families can create routines.

Everyday Labs’ Back to School Toolkit: Reestablishing a Culture of Attendance and Engagement, offers strategies, tips and printable checklists.

Attendance Awareness Celebrations!

In TX, the Ysleta Independent School District has launched its new Be Bold, Be Courageous, Be the Change, Be Present campaign to welcome students and families back to school. Watch the video! 

The Alabama Department of Education issued a proclamation naming September as Attendance Awareness Month. 

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards issued a proclamation designating September as Attendance Awareness Month! Check out the proclamation.

Events

Hedy Chang will moderate a Campaign for Grade-Level Reading webinar, Examining New Data on Learning Loss. Join us Sept. 27, 3pm ET, as our speakers investigate the lessons to be learned from Bright Spots – communities that were able to minimize learning loss and/or accelerate equitable learning recovery – and mobilize that knowledge to support efforts in communities and states.

Don’t miss AAC Webinar #4: What Works to Sustain Engagement and Attendance? Wednesday, September 28, 2022. Learn more and sign up here. 

Partner Spotlight

Everyone Graduates Center combines analysis of the causes, location and consequences of the nation’s dropout crisis with the development of tools and models designed to keep all students on the path to graduation. That includes tracking of early warning indicators, including chronic absence.

The NPSS Support Hub, housed at the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University offers free technical assistance opportunities to schools, districts, nonprofit organizations, and state and local government agencies interested in implementing or expanding programs that offer tutoring, mentoring, postsecondary transition coaching, student success coaching, and/or wraparound/integrated student support coordination. 

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.

FutureEd has analyzed local plans for spending federal Covid-relief aid, including considerable investments in reducing absenteeism.

FutureEd and Attendance Works partnered to share two dozen evidence-based interventions in the Attendance Playbook: Smart Solutions for Reducing Chronic Absenteeism in the Covid Era.

Corporate Sponsors

Thank you AAC 2022 Corporate Sponsors! Their support helps to make it possible for us to offer – at no charge – webinars and resources that equip everyone to improve student engagement and attendance.

Attendance in the News

Wide Open Walls Welcome - Good Day Sacramento, CBS News, September 18, 2022

Cardona clarifies funding priorities for Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, K-12 Dive, September 16, 2022

41% of NYC students were chronically absent last school year, Chalkbeat New York, September 16, 2022

Sample Tweet

Responding to the social-emotional learning needs of students, families and staff is essential if we want children and youth to benefit fully from education. This need has only intensified since the pandemic. https://bit.ly/3U6VUqh #SchoolEveryDay

Attendance Works is a non-profit, national and state initiative. Our mission is to promote equal opportunities to learn and advance student success 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

Sign up for our newsletter: https://awareness.attendanceworks.org/contact/aam-updates