Attendance Awareness Campaign Update A project led by Attendance Works September 10, 2020

Strong Attendance & Participation Needs A Team   Schools, districts and states have put extra time into planning the return to school this fall, creating an opportunity to redefine what engagement looks like, what school leadership means, who can help support attendance and how innovative and student-centered learning can be enjoyable and empowering for staff and students no matter how lessons are presented. Here are a few tips for strengthening your team.

Our work with schools, districts and states is helping educators and their partners think strategically about how they can effectively support students and families during Covid-19, and what they should have in place over time, to improve attendance, educational equity and student achievement. Donate here.

Use our planning guide for the 2020-21 school year designed for leaders working with district and school teams to develop a systemic approach to supporting transitions to school that is data-informed and restorative. The goal? Creating a school environment where students will be more likely to attend and/or participate! Find the guide.

Adapt or develop multi-tiered reform systems as an approach to reduce chronic absenteeism. We’ve updated our 3 Tiers of Intervention to reflect the realities of the Covid-19 pandemic and to include foundational supports that hold up our tiered interventions. Find the updated pyramid. Expanded learning providers, who help with reaching out to students and families, offer enriching and fun learning activities that motivate showing up and can contribute to creating safe places for learning if school buildings are closed. The Partnership for Children & Youth offers resources in its new report, No Longer Optional: Expanded Learning in School Reopening. Draw upon the power of the community schools approach to engage and support students. Read the National Education Association’s How Community Schools Were Better Prepared for COVID-19 Crisis or the Learning Policy Institute report, Leveraging Resources Through Community Schools: The Role of Technical Assistance. Encourage team members to add an Attendance Awareness Campaign 2020 badge to their email signature line. This year’s badges represent in-person and remote learning (and are in Spanish too!) Find a badge.

Attendance Tools

Digital Bridge K-12’s latest mapping tool enables school districts to visualize student connectivity data and find internet service provider options for unconnected households. Find the tool.  To address the challenges from the coronavirus pandemic, FutureEd developed, in partnership with Attendance Works, an updated Attendance Playbook: Smart Strategies for Reducing Chronic Absence in the Covid Era. The playbook offers strategies to address student chronic absence (mild, moderate or severe) and divides strategies into our 3 Tiers of Intervention. Attendance Works has developed the Guide to Using the Attendance Playbook: Smart Strategies for Reducing Chronic Absenteeism in the Covid Era as a companion to the updated playbook. Used together, these two resources help educators determine what interventions to try with students and their families, whether you are meeting in person, at a distance or doing both.

Policy News A key component of monitoring attendance and participation this school year is “connectivity,” or making sure students and their families have internet access and proper equipment and training on utilizing online learning platforms to participate in distance learning. The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO)’s new resource Restart & Recovery: Home Digital Access Data Collection: Blueprint for State Education Leaders provides a nuanced look at what capturing data on connectivity really requires.  During the pandemic, it is even more important that students, especially those from communities that have historically lacked sufficient access to health care, receive a flu shot and other immunizations. Data suggests a troubling drop in the number of students receiving their vaccinations. The E-3 Alliance has released a Flu Vaccine Social Media Toolkit to help spread the word.

State News

In Connecticut, The Governor’s Prevention Partnership, in collaboration with Attendance Works and the Connecticut State Department of Education, released a new attendance website page to help promote new guidance and strategies for organizations, mentors, parents and caregivers. Find downloadable tips, videos and social media images on School Attendance: Adapting to our New Normal and New Strategies for Chronic Absence. The Association of California School Administrators published our analysis of attendance during remote learning, originally published by Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE). Read Attendance matters — now more than ever.

Webinars Registration is open for our final AAC 2020 webinar, Every Learning Opportunity Matters: Promising Strategies to Help Students Show Up, on September 30, at 11am-12:30pm PT / 2pm-3:30pm ET. Our speakers will share promising approaches used by schools, districts and communities to engage and support students and families in this initial transition to school. Register! Everyone who registers will receive a link to the webinar recording and presentation slides. Consider scheduling a time to watch with colleagues when it works for you. Missed our earlier webinars? Find recordings of the live event, presentation slides and copies of the zoom chat for our two previous AAC webinars on our website. Tweet It! Join @attendanceworks @IELconnects final AAC webinar, Every Learning Opportunity Matters, on 9/30! Speakers will share promising approaches used by schools, districts & communities to engage & support students & families during Covid-19. https://awareness.attendanceworks.org/resources/webinars/ #SchoolEveryDay

Welcome New Partners! We’re delighted to announce a new State Partner! Find out more on our website.

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 Everyone Graduates Center is hosting a webinar series focused on bringing together the Pathways to Adult Success learning community’s innovative solutions to enable students’ success in these challenging times. Register for the next forum on Sept. 16 at 2:00pm ET, Enabling Student Progress through School during COVID-19 here.

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. Editorial Director Phyllis Jordan teamed up with Attendance Works for a commentary originally published in The 74. Read Taking Attendance Amid the Pandemic Is About More Than Student Participation. It Will Be Invaluable Data About Whether Distance Learning Is Actually Working

Thank You Corporate Sponsors! We’d like to send a special thanks to our Attendance Awareness Corporate Sponsors: EveryDay Labs, French Toast, Kaiser Permanente, Remind, Safe & Civil Schools. Find out more on our webpage.

Attendance in the News Students in Over 4 Dozen Cities, Towns Across Conn. Head Back to School Today, WVIT-TV, NBCConnecticut.com, September 8, 2020 State education department launching COVID-19 dashboard, Lebanon Democrat, September 5, 2020 Teaching Social-Emotional Skills Amid COVID-19, Education Week, September 2, 2020 Campaign aims to combat chronic absenteeism by getting students enrolled in Detroit schools, Chalkbeat Detroit, September 1, 2020

Spread the Word! Sample Tweets Join @attendanceworks @IELconnects final AAC webinar, Every Learning Opportunity Matters, on 9/30! Speakers will share promising approaches used by schools, districts & communities to engage & support students & families during Covid-19. https://awareness.attendanceworks.org/resources/webinars/ #SchoolEveryDay Students are more likely to attend school if they feel safe (emotionally + physically), connected, supported, and are encouraged to believe they can learn and achieve. https://www.attendanceworks.org/using-chronic-absence-data-to-improve-conditions-for-learning/ #SchoolEveryDay  Taking daily attendance & reviewing past #chronicabsence data will help districts & schools direct & offer needed supports to students in 2020-21. Here's a framework @attendanceworks for monitoring absences in distance or hybrid learning: https://www.attendanceworks.org/chronic-absence/addressing-chronic-absence/monitoring-attendance-in-distance-learning/ #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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