Attendance Awareness Campaign Update A project led by Attendance Works August 13, 2020

Welcome Families Back to School! How will you welcome each family and child now that the school year is about to begin?  Communicate clearly, briefly and in the most accessible way. Listen to Todd Rogers (and Attendance Works!) discuss communications with families on the April 21 webinar, Using the Science of Behavior Change to Help Families Help Kids.  EveryDay Lab's Family Insights Toolkit includes a sample letter for welcoming families back to school during remote learning. Download the letter.

Our work with schools, districts and states is helping educators and their partners think strategically about how they can effectively support students and families now, and what they should have in place over time, to improve attendance, educational inequity and student achievement. Donate here.

Some students and families have not been in touch with their schools during the pandemic. We've developed a list of ideas and strategies for making this connection. We share tips for home visits while practicing social distancing (on page 4 of the PDF.) Strong relationships between families and educators are key to a successful school year, especially during a pandemic. Download the Flamboyan Foundation’s new Beginning of the Year Relationship Building: A Strategy Guide for Educators. Download our key messages, updated for 2020-21, that everyone can use to encourage their school communities to engage and support students in order to improve attendance, nurture development and promote learning. While taking attendance is more complicated in the context of distance learning, it is still possible. We describe challenges related to taking attendance during remote learning, provide an example of how a state is reinstating attendance monitoring, and offer actions for local districts in a new brief published by PACE. Read Measuring Daily Attendance and Participation During COVID-19: An Invaluable Tool for Reducing Educational Inequity.

Attendance Tools As many districts and schools reach out to families and students to encourage attendance, we suggest leaders to take our online Teaching Attendance Curriculum. Module 2 can help build a culture of attendance. Find the modules.   To assist educators and administrators develop plans for resuming school amid the unique challenges presented by Covid-19, we developed Present, Engaged and Supported: A Guide to Planning Transitions to School, and the companion Transition Attendance Analysis Tools, to assist educators, administrators and their teams. Do you want to pilot the accompanying Analysis Tools? Contact us at help@attendanceworks.org. Learn more. While taking attendance is more complicated in the context of distance learning, it's still possible. To make attendance-taking useful for educators in assessing factors affecting student participation, we developed a multi-metric framework that encourages educators to ask themselves key questions. Learn more.

Policy News Parents being part of the solution-making process strengthens the parent-teacher-school partnership, which is crucial for student success. Ten equity-centered, parent-led organizations, representing 100 communities in 30 plus states, signed a letter calling on policy and education leaders to provide adequate education funding, safe school reopening, and the inclusion of parent voice in all conversations and decisions to reopen schools. Find out more.

Webinars Our next AAC webinar, Creating an Engaging and Restorative Environment to Support Transitions to School, will focus on addressing the impact of trauma while reestablishing the routine of school. Join us on Wednesday, August 19, 2020. Register!  We need your help to get the word out! Send this webinar description to colleagues, insert it in newsletters, or share our social media messages (below) about the webinar. Save the Date! Our final AAC 2020 webinar, Best Practices for Successful Transition During Covid-19, is on Wednesday, September 30, 2020. With distance and hybrid learning, student attendance is an entirely new challenge and, in many ways, more important than ever. Join us and Remind on 8/18 for Supporting Attendance During Distance Learning. You’ll hear about our updated frameworks for a multi-tiered system of support. Register.

New Corporate Sponsor! We send a big thank you as we welcome one more Attendance Awareness Corporate Sponsor. Find out more on our webpage.

Attendance in the News Taking Attendance for Online Schooling is a Team Effort, inMaricopa.com, August 7, 2020 Analysis: Taking Attendance Amid the Pandemic Is About More Than Student Participation. It Will Be Invaluable Data About Whether Distance Learning Is Actually Working, The74, August 3, 2020 Districts Pivot Their Strategies to Reduce Chronic Absenteeism During Distance Learning, EdSurge.com, July 29, 2020 Suncoast Campaign for Grade-Level Reading Honored as National Pacesetter, SRQ Magazine, July 28, 2020

Spread the Word! Join @attendanceworks @IELconnects on 8/19 for an AAC webinar. Learn how districts & schools create caring, supportive school environments, in the midst of uncertainty, that encourage students to attend & participate. Register: https://www.attendanceworks.org/resources/webinars/ #SchoolEveryDay #edequity The transition back to school this year will be like no other in recent history. @attendanceworks Present, Engaged & Supported: A Guide to Planning Transitions to School, calls for a systemic approach that's data-informed & restorative: https://www.attendanceworks.org/resources/transition-guide/ #SchoolEveryDay

Campaign Convening Partners See the full list of Attendance Awareness Partners here.

Attendance Works is a non-profit, national and state initiative. Our mission is to advance student success and reduce equity gaps by addressing 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

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