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Attendance Playbook
Smart Strategies for Reducing Student Absenteeism Post-Pandemic		Phyllis Jordon (2023) Future Ed, Attendance WorksImproving attendance involves not just adopting proven, evidence-based practices but also discarding ineffective approaches. That means shifting away from a punitive response to truancy and using legal action only as a last resort, combining it with additional support when needed. It also means examining potential bias in deciding which absences are labeled unexcused and count toward truancy.Tiers of Support (PG 6)
Tier 1 Strategies: Foundational Support & Schoolwide Prevention (PG 8, 16 strategies)
Tier II Strategies: Targeted Support (PG 47, 4 strategies)
Groups to consider:
- Asthma
- Mental Health Support & School Refusal
- Students with Disabilities
- Immigration Enforcement
Tier III Strategies: Intensive Support (PG 65, 3 strategies)
Every schoolStaff & facilitiesSafety & Belonging, HealthIn-school community-based safety supports, Mental health supports in school, Working & welcoming facilities, Trauma informed practice
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Understanding District Successes & Challenges in Reducing Chronic Absenteeism & Implications for Statewide SupportsCalifornia Collaborative for Educational Excellence (2022)Successful districts shared the following mindsets and practices:
- Shifting mindset and building understanding…
- Leveraging strong data practices…
- Integrating practices across the whole district…
- Utilizing early intervention…
- Providing consistent, focused wraparound communication…
- Ensuring strong support and staffing…
- Maximizing community partnerships…
- Developing flexible paths for students…		We observed that districts that were successful in lowering chronic absenteeism rates shared the following four characteristics:
1. Attendance work was systemic: All parts of the school/district system treated attendance as critical and worked together to make it a priority.
2. Relationship building and connection were essential: Districts created multiple opportunities for student-to-student, teacher-to-student, admin-to-student, counselor-to-student, and community program-to-student connections. Every student had at least one person and a place they connected to.
3. Data was timely, informative, and led to action: Districts created processes for pulling, sharing, and acting on data regularly, and students, parents, and staff could all easily access this data.
4. Resources and attention were committed over time: According to participants, staff time and funding were targeted to elevate attendance as a priority across their systems.		Every schoolStaff & facilitiesData, Family connectionsGoals & monitoring
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Multi-tiered systems of support for school attendance and its problems: An unlearning perspective for areas of high chronic absenteeismKearney, Christopher & Patricia Graczyk (2022) Frontiers in Education- Traditional multi-tiered systems of support (MD-MTSS) frameworks may not be effective in areas with very high rates of chronic absenteeism.
- The authors propose an "unlearning" approach that adapts MD-MTSS frameworks for these specific areas.
- This includes focusing on root cause analysis, addressing systemic barriers, and building partnerships with community agencies.
- The authors also propose modifications to Tier 2 and Tier 3 interventions, such as mapping community assets, reducing barriers to care, and incorporating culturally relevant practices.		This article is a perspective piece, not a research study.
The authors provide recommendations based on their expertise and review of the literature.
Further research is needed to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed "unlearning" approach.

Key recommendations:
Tier 1:
Conduct root cause analysis to identify systemic barriers to attendance.
Partner with external agencies to address these barriers.
Develop full-service community schools.
Tier 2:
Map community assets to identify relevant mental health and academic support options.
Reduce barriers to care by collaborating with community providers.
Tailor interventions to be culturally relevant.
Tier 3:
Develop a centralized catchment and intervention process for high-needs students.
Coordinate care with a system of community agencies.
Utilize alternative, flexible pathways to school completion.		Every kidRoutinesHealth and mental health supportsEasily accessible attendance goals
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Rising Tide of Chronic Absenve Challenges SchoolsAttendance Works (2023)These high levels of chronic absence demonstrate the urgent need for systemic responses that rebuild a culture of daily attendance by investing in the underlying positive conditions for learning in schools that motivate showing up while also removing barriers to attendance.Build upon what has been learned about effective responses to chronic absenteeism over the past decade or more. See for example, the Attendance Playbook and Learnings from the Grad Partnership with interventions that work.
Advance programmatic and policy solutions, including for example, community schools, that help districts and schools address the challenges that make it hard for students and families to get to class and affect their ability to learn even when they do show up.
These include, for example, the lack of health insurance and health care, unreliable transportation, unsafe paths to school, food insecurity and unstable housing.
We can also establish community-wide campaigns that re-establish daily attendance in school as a top priority and convey to everyone why it matters for student well-being and success. The size and scale of the challenge merits and requires an all hands-on-deck approach.
To be effective, these systemic approaches must also recognize the strengths families, students and communities bring to the table, as well as their day-to-day realities. Doing so requires we avoid counterproductive punitive approaches that alienate students and families.		Every schoolHealthStaff & Facillities, Homelife supports, RoutinesTags
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Disparities in Unexcused Absences Across California SchoolsClea McNeely
Hedy N. Chang
Kevin A. Gee
with
Joshua Childs
Cecelia Leong
Janet E. Rosenbaum (2023).
PACE		Although English learners and students with disabilities were more likely to be chronically
absent, disparities in unexcused absences for these groups were relatively small compared to disparities across socioeconomic, racial, and ethnic groups.		- Use data to learn about disparities and identify bright spots.
- Invest in better practices and data systems for monitoring and understanding reasons for both excused and unexcused absences.
- Review and update local and state policies related to unexcused absences.
- Assess and improve how attendance practices and policies are communicated to students and families.
- Invest in professional development to improve attendance and truancy practices.


The key to improving attendance is understanding and addressing the underlying challenges that lead students to miss too much school in the first place. Schools and districts can better monitor reasons for absences over time so that they can detect when large numbers of students face similar challenges and tailor attendance strategies to specific reasons for absence.
Every kidRoutinesDataEasily accessible attendance info, Using data to deploy resources, stability
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Reclaimed Opportunity: Using Nudge letters to Reduce Chronic Absenteeism in an Improvement NetworkSan Diego County Office of Education (2023)A nudge letter is a type of communication sent to parents with the aim of informing them about their child’s absences compared to the typical or average student absences. Instead of imposing strict penalties or punishments, these letters are designed to influence decision-making and avert future absences.Page 5 (example nudge letter)Every dayRoutinesFamily connectionsPersonalized outreach, Knowing who is chronically absent
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California's dramatic jump in chronically absent students part of a nationwide surgeBETTY MÁRQUEZ ROSALES, MALLIKA SESHADRI, & DANIEL J. WILLIS (2023). EdSourceWhen she didn’t get a doctor’s note, she felt pressured by school administrators demanding that her daughter’s “truancies” be excused. So she wrote letters detailing each absence.
“They should trust us that, you know, we understand our children,” Lopez said. “I mean, if you see them in the morning, and they do not look well, or … even if it’s a low-grade fever, like, yeah, we may not be doctors, but we’re parents.”
“Every principal will be crafting a message that will go out either via email or text — whichever the family wants,” said Robert Sahli, the district’s associate superintendent. “It’s just really important to get that frequent communication.”


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At Happy Valley Union School District in rural Shasta County, one solution has been to purchase a van to transport students to school and to host roundtable events that increase direct communication with parents.


“Literally, we’re buying a round table so that we can fit together and have that conversation face to face in a peaceful, calm manner,” said Superintendent Shelly Craig.		Every kidRoutinesData, Family connectionsAwareness Messaging, personalized outreach
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How do you get kids to miss less school? Resources, strong relationships and ‘nudge letters,’ a county effort findsKristen Taketa. (2023) The San Diego Union-TribuneAmong the 9,000 students who attended those schools, chronic absenteeism fell from 41 percent of students in the 2021-2022 school year to 32 percent this past school year after the schools deployed interventions, according to a county report released last month.
One of the main strategies that schools have used to curb absenteeism is sending home “nudge letters” with students, notifying families of their students’ many absences and reminding them of the importance of attending school.


Schools have also worked on ensuring that chronically absent students each had a strong relationship with an adult on campus. For example, school teams would identify the adult who has the closest connection with a chronically absent student and encourage that person to reach out to the student regularly.		Every kidRoutinesData, Family connectionsAwareness messaging, personalized outreach
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Long COVID for Public Schools: Chronic Absenteeism Before and After the PandemicNat Malkus. (2024). American Enterprise Institute“...there is no obvious rationale for supposing that chronic absenteeism would fall at such a rate instead of remaining at or near current levels. Indeed, there were strong reasons to expect
chronic absenteeism rates to fall between 2022, when COVID case rates were high, and 2023, the first post-pandemic school year, but what strong reasons are there to suppose that chronic absenteeism will fall at a similar rate between 2023 and 2024 or between 2028 and 2029? Why not suppose instead that 2023
chronic absenteeism rates are the new post-pandemic baseline? In short, surging chronic absenteeism is not a pandemic problem but a post-pandemic problem, one that educators will need to grapple with in the coming years.


Chronic absenteeism harms students even in normal times, but it is even worse in the context of pandemic learning loss because it will hamper academic recovery and likely already has (37). Moreover, the groups of students with the highest rates of chronic absenteeism—black and Hispanic students and those in low-achievement and high-poverty school districts—are the same students whose pandemic learning losses tend to be larger (38). Chronic absenteeism is arguably the number-one problem facing public schools today…”		Though this report focuses on describing the problem, some observations regarding what may be part of a necessary, if not sufficient treatment are warranted. The first is that school districts will need to use both carrots and sticks to address the problem. Surely that means adding supports targeting student belonging, transportation challenges, communication efforts, and positive reinforcements, but those inducements should be supported with expectations and appropriate consequences for both truant students and parents who prove unwilling to fulfill their moral and legal obligations to make sure their child attends school regularly.


Ameliorating this cultural challenge will be difficult without bold leadership. Leaders—from principals to the president—should use the bully pulpit to make plain that, just as the pandemic is over, pandemic-era exceptionalism in schools must also be over, meaning that school attendance must return to normal and that other unwanted behaviors must stop.


Absent from the list above are teachers, but only because they warrant their own mention. Teachers are an indispensable component of the change that must happen in schools. No combination of counselors, central office staff, emailed announcements, truancy officers, and superintendents will be able to provide the effective communication and demonstrate the concern that students’ teachers can. We can empathize with beleaguered teachers who bear substantial daily burdens and have limited capacity for another responsibility and still see that their engagement is necessary for substantial cultural change in schools and the accompanying improvements in student attendance.		Every schoolStaff & facilitiesHealth, safety & belonging, transportation, enrichmentKnowing who is chronically absent, stability, releable public transportation
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The LEAP Effect: Taking a Systemic Approach to Improcing Attendance & EngagementLearner Engagement & Attendance Program. (2023)LEAP is a relational home visit model and a targeted (Tier II) student intervention that serves as part of a comprehensive system of support for families whose students are struggling with consistent attendance. Its mission is to build trusting relationships with families to ultimately positively impact
students’ engagement and attendance. Students at-risk of or already chronically absent and
disengaged from school are identified for home visits by the school.		Outcomes/Change IdeasEvery schoolFamily connectionsConnections to home/ life resources, Family visits; personalized outreach
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Chronic Absenteeism 2017-2023Return 2 Learn TrackerReturn to Learn’s (R2L) chronic absenteeism data span districts in 50 states from 2016-2017 to 2022-2023 where available, for the most current and comprehensive chronic absenteeism data available anywhere.
← Title Link for more on R2L’s methods, and scroll down to see how chronic absenteeism changed from 2017 to 2023.

Every dayData (ED)Tags
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Has School Become Optional? MacGillis, Alec. (2024). The New Yorker & ProPublica“Johnson is part of an increasingly popular approach to combating truancy: she makes home visits to learn why children are missing school and then works with families and schools to get them back on track.”Outcomes/Change Ideas​​Tags
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What We’re Missing: A Descriptive Analysis of Part-Day Absenteeism in Secondary SchoolBoth full- and part-day absenteeism show a discrete jump at the point of transition from middle school to high school, but full-day absenteeism then declines whereas part-day absenteeism remains high in Grades 10 and 11 and increases again in Grade 12. Whereas 55% of full-day absences are unexcused, 92% of part-day absences are unexcused. Absenteeism from individual classes varies considerably by time of day but less by class subject matter.Outcomes/Change IdeasEvery schoolData (ES)Tags
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Factors Influencing School Attendance for Chronically Absent Students in the Sacremento City Unified School DistrictChronic Absenteeims Issue Bried Series (2014) UC Davis Center of Regional ChangeQuoteOutcomes/Change IdeasEvery kidHealth supportsHomelife supports, mental health supports, Transportation, HousingTags
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Chronic Absenteeism Research-Practice PartnershipCalifornia Collaborative for Educational ExcellenceQuoteOutcomes/Change IdeasEvery dayData (ED)Routine access to accurate attendance data, using data to deploy measures
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San Diego County: Improving Chronic Absence Network San Diego County Office of EducationQuoteOutcomes/Change IdeasEvery kidRoutinesFamily connections, DataTags
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Back to School Attendance Presentation TemplateQuoteOutcomes/Change Ideas​​Tags
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Proving Ground: Post Card Guide and Personalized Messaging GuideProving Ground: How-To Series. (2020)“The purpose of these postcards was to reduce absenteeism by addressing parental misconceptions about the cumulative number of student absences and the academic content missed in prekindergarten through second grade. Over the course of a school year, we found that an early-grades postcard reduced absences by 7.9% across the districts.”


“This How-To Guide is designed for school staff who want to try out personalized messaging to improve attendance in their districts. During the 2020–21 academic year, the National Center for Rural Education Research Networks (NCRERN) partnered with eight rural districts in New York and Ohio to pilot test personalized messaging in Grades K–12. Over the course the academic year, the personalized messaging decreased absences by 2.4% in participating districts.”		Proving Ground partners with districts and states to implement continuous improvement approaches to address key challenges including chronic absenteeism. One aspect that distinguishes them (which is not the best fit for everyone) is that they embed rapid cycle randomized control trials within the study phase of their PDSAs (on the order of 8 weeks), so they are able to generate fairly strong evidence for their partners and the field to act on. Because they’ve worked with over 60 partners to date they’ve been able to do a fair amount of prototyping and testing.


The resources linked in the first column summarize key guidance they’ve gleaned from working with partners who have tested out postcards and other forms of personalized messaging to reduce chronic absenteeism.


This is a source for implementation guidance for a broader set of interventions the rural network tested and a case study version of summarizing that work.		Every schoolFamily connectionsRoutine communitcations, Connections to home/life resources, attendance coordinators, personalized outreach
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