A Note from the Executive Director

Students and families need a positive school climate now more than ever. In fact, student connectedness is an effective, whole school prevention strategy that does not require extensive training and easily builds upon activities already underway. 

In the late fall, create opportunities for students, families and staff to experience a sense of belonging. Activities such as adult and peer mentoring, service learning opportunities, student-led clubs and efforts to amplify student voice that take place during the school day, after-school or summer learning programs can promote connectedness.  

Check out our AAC webinar Student Connectedness Fosters Attendance and Engagement, and hear school leaders and state education staff share what they’re doing to successfully promote a connection to school for families and students. 

Finally, we want to make sure you know that Attendance Works is hiring a Program and Administrative Support Associate to provide support to our programs department and Executive Director. This full-time, exempt position is ideal for someone who has a keen eye for details, and excels at multitasking and managing logistics. Apply by November 26, 2025!

Warmly, 

Hedy Chang

Founder and Executive Director

AAC Survey

We’d love your feedback on this year's Attendance Awareness Campaign. Our short survey will just take five minutes to complete. Fill in your contact information and enter a drawing to win one of two $75 gift cards. 

Here are a few of the metrics we gathered from AAC 2025:

• 18,892 people registered for our four Attendance Awareness Campaign webinars, vs. 10,429 in 2024.
• 10 attendance awareness updates were emailed (go here to see them all).
• 142 national and state-level partners disseminated information to their constituents.
• 8,898 news stories and blog posts featured student attendance issues or Attendance Awareness Month in July, August and September.

Find more AAC 2025 metrics.

Webinars

Participation in our AAC webinar series was record breaking. The recording and presentation slides for each webinar are on our website. Consider a webinar viewing party and download our discussion guide!

Raising awareness about the opportunities schools offer students and families can continue all year! Our social media resources and posters remain available for everyone on our website.  

Campaign sponsors

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

Make sure to send a letter home before the holidays with a reminder of the date school resumes. We’ve updated a letter for the Thanksgiving break expressing your gratitude to families and students. Our winter holiday letter (also updated this year!) reminds families to avoid taking extra days off around the winter break.

Edutopia has collected a variety of strategies that promote connectedness for a range of grade levels. 

Schoolhouse Connection released a resource with Strategies to Support Native Students Experiencing Homelessness in Indian Country. From improving school coordination to building trust and partnerships, the insights included are designed for local liaisons, BIE staff and community organizations. 

In Memphis, Attendance Works partnered with a cohort of charter schools, supported by several local foundations, and is demonstrating that community-driven strategies can improve student attendance. The schools worked to build systems that emphasized prevention, early intervention and strong parent engagement. Check out this bright spot!

Do you know of a bright spot? The Carnegie Foundation is recognizing initiatives having significant impact on student success, including improved attendance and preparation for opportunities after high school. Consider applying for the Carnegie Award for Impact. Applications are due November 10th.

We are continuing to expand our cross-partisan outreach through The 50% Challenge. Georgia and Indiana have signed on, meaning that 18 states are taking a leadership role in demonstrating the range of ways to cut chronic absence in half over five years. Collectively, these states educate over one-third of America’s students.

Every Day Counts in Vermont is an initiative to reduce absenteeism with partnerships between schools and health services. The initiative aligns with efforts at the Vermont Agency of Education to increase flagging attendance rates.

Medicaid can be leveraged as a sustainable and scalable funding source for school-based substance use prevention and early intervention health services. In a new policy brief, Healthy Schools Campaign highlights how Medicaid cuts can negatively affect schools' ability to provide substance use services and features policy recommendations. 

Working with researchers from across the country, AEI has released a series of studies focused on chronic absence. The most recent look at early warning systems, patterns of chronic absence, reasons for absence post pandemic, and analysis of the benefits to academics if we could reduce to prior chronic absence levels. 

Learning Policy Institute’s new report, Community Schools Impact on Student Outcomes: Evidence From California examines the first full year of implementation of California’s investment in community schools. The study finds improved test scores and reduced chronic absence on average by about 30% more than similar schools.

The Attendance Works virtual three-part training series for educators is here to help. Registration is open now for spring 2026 classes. Learn proven, evidence-based tiered strategies to engage students and families in improving attendance. Interested in a customized series for local participants? Contact us at help@attendanceworks.org.  

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 a 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)

Fewer students are missing school. These state policies may have helped, NPR, November 1, 2025

Missing as little as 10% of school can impact test scores and the odds of attending college, study finds, Nebraska Public Media, October 17, 2025

Long Covid Is Real — And It's Changing an Entire Generation, Rolling Stone, October 14, 2025

Attendance rates reach 95 percent as absenteeism declines districtwide, The Daily Iowan, October 14, 2025

Please donate today to ensure that we have what it takes to continue providing you with resources that help students show up to school every day possible.