Photo by Allison Shelley for American Education: Images of Teachers and Students in Action |
A Note from the Executive Director |
As we head towards the last quarter of the school year, monitoring chronic absence and attendance data is even more vital. The number of students who have missed out on significant amounts of instruction this year is unprecedented. Available data from a handful of states suggest chronic absence is dramatically increasing.
Black, Latino and Native American students, students living in poverty, students with disabilities and English language learners have been especially affected. Many districts have seen marked declines in enrollment, especially among our youngest learners. Read our blog post about early data from Connecticut and California.
Knowing which students are chronically absent and not participating in school offers clear indicators of where educators and policy makers should invest outreach and support as part of Covid-19 recovery. To reflect the key role absenteeism plays in recovery, the 2021 Attendance Awareness Campaign theme is Rebound with Attendance!
Even though we know that many districts have their hands full with reopening school buildings, we urge finding a way to plan and take action for the long term. The 2021 AAC calls on everyone to begin involving students and families in the spring to keep current students engaged and attract students to enroll. Building relationships that nurture a sense of belonging takes time, so starting now is essential. And, reviewing attendance data on an on-going basis will help to identify, early on, students in need of additional support as well as practices and policies in need of revision.
The good news is federal recovery funds, especially those in the American Rescue Act, allow districts more ability than ever before to invest in systemic solutions to reducing chronic absence, including better data systems, professional development, family engagement, tailored interventions and community schools. See our blog post, How Covid Relief Dollars Can Help Improve Attendance.
The innovation, fortitude and compassion exhibited by educators working in communities across the country for the past year has been amazing! This spring, I urge everyone to take a moment to celebrate how far we have come during extremely trying times, find time for self-care and continue to move the work forward in a positive way.
Best wishes,
Hedy N. Chang
Executive Director and Founder
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Our ability to continue to provide free resources and tools, webinars, technical assistance and guidance depends on our foundation partners, colleagues and you. Your tax-deductible donation will ensure all students an opportunity to thrive, do well in school and succeed, whether instruction is in-person, remote or a hybrid. Please consider donating to Attendance Works here!
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Attendance Awareness Campaign 2021 |
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In partnership with America's Promise Alliance, the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, Everyone Graduates Center, FutureEd, Healthy Schools Campaign, Institute for Educational Leadership, MENTOR and United Way Worldwide, we are calling on schools, districts and communities to Rebound with Attendance! Over 90 collaborating partners have already agreed to join us again to spread the word that all children should be in school every day they can.
Keeping the coronavirus pandemic in mind, we’re using our ninth campaign this year to raise awareness that attendance is an actionable metric for student engagement, whether instruction is virtual, in person or a hybrid. The Campaign calls for starting in the spring to promote attendance now and laying the foundation for ensuring students will attend classes this fall. Learn more on our AAC website. |
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Join us on April 14 as we kick off this year’s Campaign with AAC Webinar #1! We’ve planned four webinars for AAC 2021 under our theme Rebound with Attendance! Each of the free webinars will offer insights, strategies and real-world examples illustrating how we can encourage and support student attendance from spring and through the next school year. Register for all four webinars here!
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Webinar 1: Committed: Supporting Attendance and Participation to the Very Last Day of School, Wednesday, April 14, 2021: 11am-12:30pm PT / 2pm–3:30pm ET.
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Webinar 2: Engaged: Using Summer to Connect with Students and Families, Wednesday, May 26, 2021: 11am-12:30pm PT / 2pm–3:30pm ET.
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Webinar 3: Welcomed: Embracing Students, Families and Educators in the New School Year, Wednesday, August 4, 2021: 11am-12:30pm PT / 2pm–3:30pm ET.
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Webinar 4: Fully Present: Leveraging Attendance Data to Ensure Ongoing Success, Wednesday, September 29, 2021: 11am-12:30pm PT / 2pm–3:30pm ET.
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We're preparing to launch AAC 2021 w/ @attendanceworks! Sign up for webinar #1 & learn pioneering practices that can be used during the last months of school to sustain & expand the participation of students & families. Register for all 4 https://www.attendanceworks.org/resources/webinars/
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Have you noticed that student attendance drops in the spring? By preparing for the Spring Slump, districts, schools and teachers can implement strategies that encourage attendance and participation. Most activities can be done in-person or adapted for remote learning. We’ve developed a sample letter, calendar of activities and more to address the Spring Slump.
The staff at Edwards-Knox Central School saw student attendance drop off significantly during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. Educators worked with kids and the community to develop a school-wide incentive program. Read our blog about how daily activities boosted attendance.
A positive school climate can have a real impact on attendance. Consider creating a sense of belonging and fun on the playground this spring with games that reinforce social emotion learning. Check out 12 Games to Teach SEL from Playworks.
When educators, communities and families work together in a community school to support every student every day, attendance improves. We are pleased to be a member of the Task Force on Next Generation Community Schools, sponsored by the Brookings Institution. Learn more about community schools in the new task force report.
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NEW! Professional Development |
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Wondering how to invest new federal dollars from the American Rescue Act? Attendance Works is pleased to offer our highly-rated, three-part e-training series for educators to learn proven, evidence-based tiered strategies to promote attendance and engagement. As schools seek to engage record numbers of students that have missed weeks or even months of school, it’s clear that they need all-hands-on-deck to improve attendance in the fall and through the new school year. Participants will get a chance to interact with their peers and the Attendance Works team in break out rooms. Learn more and register.
The series cost is $300 per person; school administrators are encouraged to attend with their teams. All sessions are also eligible for Title 1 and Title 2A funds. Classes meet every 2 weeks. Sign up for:
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New guidance on assessment, accountability and reporting requirements for this school year from the US Department of Education requires states to publicly report disaggregated chronic absence data, and if available, data on connectivity, as a condition of waiving accountability. We think this is important because it will help make sure that chronic absence data is made available to the public, even though collection of data has been challenging as a result of distance and hybrid learning. Publicly reporting chronic absence data is key to ensuring action is taken when absenteeism is at high levels, and can help stimulate the demand for better quality data. |
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Transportation, health issues and misunderstanding about the importance of attendance are the main causes of student absenteeism in Detroit. How can we ensure that students attend school regularly to access instructional opportunities? Wayne State University’s Detroit Education Research Partnership and Every School Day Counts Detroit coalition address challenges, weigh implications and give recommendations in Why Do Detroit Students Miss So Much School? Implications for Returning to School After Covid-19. Read the main takeaways on our blog.
When thousands of students failed to transition to distance learning, researchers Lucrecia Santibañez and Cassandra Guarino at Brown University’s Annenberg Institute asked, "How much did the pandemic impact student academic and social-emotional development?" They found that student outcomes generally suffer more from absenteeism in mathematics than in English Language Arts and that absences negatively affect social emotional development. Details in The Effects of Absenteeism on Cognitive and Social-Emotional Outcomes: Lessons for Covid-19. |
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Pathways to Adult Success, the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University, is holding a free webinar on April 6, 2021, sharing strategies that help educators offer and intensify monitoring and supports that most or all students will likely need as they return to school next fall. Register for "Extending On-Track Supports to All Secondary Students in the 2021-22 School Year".
Join us at the Institute for Educational Leadership’s 2021 National Family & Community Engagement Conference June 1-4, 2021. With pre-conference sessions, plenaries, workshops, deep dive sessions and more, participants will be immersed in many examples of innovation and high-impact engagement work taking place across the country. Register now!
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Attendance Works would like to express its deep appreciation to the foundations that are currently funding our work nationally and in communities across the country: Annie E. Casey Foundation, The Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, GRoW @ Annenberg, Heising-Simons Foundation, Hellman Foundation, Kaiser Permanente Northwest, Open Society Institute–Baltimore, The Patterson Foundation, Rogers Family Foundation, Stuart Foundation, United Way of Greater Kansas City. |
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