What Works: Attendance Issues and Solutions

In temporarily limiting in-person learning, COVID-19 effectively asked children throughout the country to “skip” school—or only show up virtually. Many schools witnessed a subsequent rise in chronic absenteeism that continues today, and missing in-person instruction is likely to have lasting impacts on children’s academic achievement and long-range success.

Some of the flexible approaches schools took to meet learning needs while in crisis became family expectations. Many now take an à la carte approach to education, choosing where and how their kids participate. Parents plan trips that take students out of classes for multiple days during the year, for example, or would prefer that their kids attend some classes via Zoom.

The hardships that tend to produce student absences remain the same: mental health issues, transportation challenges, family instability, and housing insecurity. But administrators are finding that the traditional methods of encouraging attendance are no longer sufficient to address disengagement and chronic absenteeism, and they are looking for more comprehensive approaches.

Principal magazine asked educators how they have addressed heightened levels of absenteeism, finding that data, personal outreach, and persistence are essential in today’s school environment. Here’s what administrators said:

Todd Brist, Principal, Watertown Middle School, Watertown, South Dakota

Do attendance or absenteeism challenges manifest differently among middle-​level students?

At the middle level, adolescent issues such as anxiety, depression, bullying, refusal, or lack of coping skills arise. As students get older, there is a natural release of responsibility from parent to child, so communication and connection can be more difficult. The only real way to get students into school is to make a personal connection—a connection that the family sees as a personal commitment to their child.

What kinds of communication tools do you use to encourage attendance and cut absenteeism?

Social media, texting, and communication apps are most effective, because everyone—adults and kids alike—is plugged into their cellphones and likely to see a notification. We launched an app through our school that provides direct one- and two-way communication with families.

What school- and district-level data is available to you, and how do you use it to battle absenteeism?

We have great resources through Infinite Campus. We can pull data quickly and easily on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. We also have a state-level data system, SD STARS, that assists in identifying early warning indicators and longitudinal data.

What strategies can you recommend to other middle-​level principals looking to improve attendance?

There is no silver bullet or magic wand. Today’s solution might not work tomorrow for the same student or family. You can’t rest on past success and have to stay nimble with a well-stocked toolbox of strategies.

Working with students who have attendance issues is not complex. First, identify the root cause (e.g., anxiety, depression, conflict, poor social skills, lack of resources). Second, help the student understand the importance of good attendance by making it as relatable as possible. Finally, help the student find a connection at school, whether it is an adviser, program, or activity.

Shannon Hamm, Principal, Circle Center Grade School, Yorkville, Illinois

How do mental health days work for students in your school? Are they effective?

In Illinois, students get five mental health days a year excused. Once they hit three, our social worker checks in on them. This has been helpful for students who are just having a rough day or for families that vacation throughout the school year.

What kinds of communication tools do you use to encourage attendance and cut absenteeism?

We put items in a weekly newsletter to parents and when [absenteeism] becomes an issue, we make phone calls to parents to see how we can help. Since I am the principal of a K–3 building, it isn’t the student’s issue if they are absent a lot.

What school- and district-level data is available to you, and how do you use it to battle absenteeism?

We can view a report for daily absences, and my assistant principal meets with our truancy officer once a month to talk about concerns or students with whom he needs to get involved.

What strategies can you recommend to other principals looking to improve attendance?

Work on relationships with parents. Persistence helps them see the importance of being in school every day. Once they go to truancy and/or they are on a medical documentation requirement, things typically improve. Among the families we have worked closely with, we have seen results. [We still] struggle with tardies. We contact parents, but often they just can’t get their mornings together. We are happy when kids come to school!

Courtney Goodman, Principal, Field Elementary School, Park Ridge, Illinois

What kinds of communication tools do you use to encourage attendance and cut absenteeism?

We use letters to notify families of the percentage of absences for children who are over a 5 percent absentee threshold. We follow those letters up with phone calls and in-person meetings. We’ve used an infographic that equates the number of missed days per year to a total over a child’s educational career to help families see the larger impact. We’ve also adjusted how we communicate about school attendance with incoming kindergarten families to stress its importance at the outset.

How do mental health days work for students in your school? Are they effective?

Illinois provides five mental health days per year for students. Families are aware that these are excused absences and will indicate their child is taking a mental health day when they call their child’s absence in. Our social workers will reach out to families once a child has taken a few mental health days to see if any additional support is needed.

What school- and district-level data is available to you, and how do you use it to battle absenteeism?

Our student information system tracks attendance, so we see trends. We record excused and unexcused absences, and we can sort the absences by time of year, time of week, or certain months. I wish we had more time as a district team to review the data and compare it among the five elementary buildings; I would love to know if my school trends the same as others in the district.

What strategies can you recommend to other principals looking to improve attendance?

One of the incentives we’ve tried this year is attendance tags—small metal keychains that can be hooked on a backpack. While elementary students are motivated by prizes, they are often not solely in charge of their ability to attend, so we try to think about ways to motivate the whole family. Persistence is key. The more we keep trying to be in touch with families and encouraging students to be in attendance, the more progress we make.

Sherry Knight, Director of Curriculum, Instruction, and Equity, Burlington City School District, Burlington, New Jersey

What kinds of communication tools do you use to encourage attendance and cut absenteeism?

We currently use ParentSquare to reach parents when their students are absent. We also use social media and have a team of staff members who make personal phone calls home.

Are there pros and cons to offering incentives to support attendance?

The pros are that students tend to be more intentional about coming to school. [Younger students] pressure their parents to get them here, and older students like the instant gratification. The con is that we can’t keep this up forever. We hope families see the benefit of being in school daily and the big picture at the end.

Are there incentives for attendance that seem to work better than others?

This year, we’re offering a trip to Sesame Place for students who aren’t absent more than three days and not late. We regularly offer pretzels and other food items. We have class competitions. To date, these have decreased absenteeism by about 50 percent.

How did you get started with these strategies?

We determined that something had to be done. Our students can’t learn if they aren’t there. We extended efforts to our teachers, who have shown growth in attendance. We disaggregated data by schools, grades, and gender. For the older students, we asked why they weren’t coming and what they need from us as educators. We created action plans and visited them monthly with the absenteeism team. Everyone is vested.

What school- and district-level data is available to you, and how do you use it to battle absenteeism?

Each school has a daily report that is used to contact parents if they don’t contact us. That is incorporated into a principal’s monthly report [and] shared with the central office to see if siblings are also absent.

What strategies can you recommend to other principals looking to improve attendance?

You have to build relationships with parents and let them know we are a team. Support them when you can and tell them there are compensatory laws about kids being in school. Also, it can’t be a one-and-done. Consistency is important.

Katy Kennedy, Principal, Washington Middle School, Glendive, Montana

Do attendance challenges manifest differently among middle-level students?

Starting in the middle grades, students start to push back on attending school, and their parents don’t enforce attendance or communicate the issue. Students articulate mental health concerns, stating they will kill themselves or saying they are getting bullied. We ask to assist without much luck. There is also a significant lack of sleep due to screen time keeping students up late.

What kinds of communication tools do you use to encourage attendance and cut absenteeism?

We encourage meetings when a student has reached five days of absences in a semester to provide support or intervene. We communicate the importance of students being in school through newsletters and social media. We collect homework when students are gone but reinforce that they can only do certain things while in school.

What school- and district-level data is available to you, and how do you use it to battle absenteeism?

Attendance gets pulled into a platform that collects data from various sources. This makes it easier to identify patterns of impact in other areas, such as behavior, academics, social-emotional skills, etc.).

What strategies get the attention of middle-level students and their parents?

There don’t seem to be a lot [that work]—PBIS, mentoring, education for parents, a four-day school week, etc. If I receive any alarm from parents, it’s when they have reached the state limit for truancy or the district’s policy on more than 20 absences per semester.

Ricardo Lois, Director of Secondary Schools

Nancy Romero, Guidance Administrator, ABC Unified School District, Cerritos, California

What is improvement science, and how do you use it to measure success in this area?

Improvement science is a framework that allows district or school teams to identify an equity-based problem and develop actionable solutions that address some of the root causes. With schools receiving technical assistance, we saw immediate improvements in how attendance teams met and reviewed data. Most of the schools participating in the process also showed improved attendance rates and lowered chronic absenteeism rates.

What kinds of communication tools do you use to encourage attendance and cut absenteeism?

We realized that communication with students and families required more than an automated phone call. Some of the methods we used included personal calls to parents/guardians, which provided an opportunity to understand the reason for an absence and offer support. Text messages via applications such as ParentSquare, Remind, and ClassDojo allow for quick and timely updates about absences, reminders about upcoming events, or positive reinforcement messages and can be sent directly to parents’ phones. Last, a districtwide email was sent through ParentSquare to all families.

How did you get started with these strategies?

At the beginning of the year, [we] conducted professional learning sessions with administrators, teachers, classified staff, and parents regarding the importance of attendance. We asked each school to provide us with the names of those in student attendance review teams in order to provide appropriate district-level support. Additionally, we send school site attendance data every month [to help] monitor students in need of support with attendance.

What school- and district-level data is available to you, and how do you use it to battle absenteeism?

Mrs. Romero works with a group of schools experiencing elevated levels of chronic absenteeism and provides training on Aeries to monitor student attendance data in real time. She meets with the schools in this cohort every quarter to monitor their improvement plans around attendance and provide technical support.

What strategies can you recommend to other principals looking to improve attendance?

Attendance data can be pulled daily [to see] if the strategies employed are effective. We also began to monitor the number of student attendance review team meetings held at each site and saw an increase from prior years. As a district, we have shown an increase in attendance rates and decreases in chronic absenteeism.

What advice can you offer to fellow educators who are battling chronic absenteeism?

Keep up the good fight. Attendance improvement is an ongoing battle. There will always be students and families who need a little more support. Supporting them offers a great opportunity to help a kid reengage with school and its programs, as well as make a positive impact on the student’s trajectory.

Kaylen Tucker, Ph.D. is Editor-in-Chief of Principal magazine.

Ian P. Murphy is senior editor of Principal magazine.