September is Attendance Awareness Month!

Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction sent this bulletin at 06/05/2017 12:02 PM PDT
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September is Attendance Awareness Month!

OSPI, along with Attendance Works, is asking you to participate in September Attendance Awareness Month.  The goal of the campaign is to expand the public’s awareness of the important role that regular attendance plays in student achievement as well as the need to address common barriers to getting to school particularly for our most vulnerable children.

The beginning of the school year is an excellent time to invest in awareness raising and education efforts around attendance; these critical tier one efforts can have a positive impact on all students and families.  
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Share your attendance work, highlights, and stories with us!  We want to know what you’re doing!   

Email krissy.johnson@k12.wa.us. 

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Other resources, and copies of this newsletter will be available on the OSPI Attendance Website and Attendance Works. 


Attendance is a year-round habit!  OSPI will be offering tools and resources throughout the year including webinars and videos highlighting work across the state.  


Stay tuned. 

 

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District Superintendent Call to Action

Washington school districts have the opportunity to show our commitment to increasing attendance in our state.  Join the district superintendent call to action on the Attendance Works website.  Sign up is simple and will take only a minute.  Our goal is to have 100 district superintendents commit to building awareness of attendance and sign up!   

Outreach & Campaign Materials

Are you interested in or currently developing your September Attendance Awareness communication and activities?  OSPI is developing several tools that will support your efforts.  

  • Attendance Posters, magnets, and postcards will be printed and distributed to your district or region (sample on right, more are being developed) and /or available in an editable template online.
  • Social Media Toolkit. OSPI will put together and provide a social media toolkit that will include tweets and facebook posts, making it easy for your communication folks or your principal to plug and play. 
  • Local Sports Celebrity PSAs. OSPI, Department of Social and Human Services, and Mentoring Works Washington are partnering with the Seattle Sounders, Seahawks, and the Storm to create video PSAs to spread the word on the power of attending school.  These videos can be used on social media!

We will notify districts when these materials are available, or you can check back to the OSPI Attendance website. 

    Attend Today, Achieve Tomorrow Attendance Poster Competition

    For the first year, students from across Washington can demonstrated their artistic talents to help eliminate chronic absenteeism in our schools!

    The poster contest asks students to illustrate the importance of going to school – every day. The illustrations will be:

    • printed as posters and shared across the state
    • shared on social media

    Poster submissions will be judged by the OSPI cabinet including Superintendent Chris Reykdal.  Submission deadline: November 1.  Winners announced: December 1.

    Prizes awarded may include a visit from the Seattle Sounders, Seahawks or Storm.  Posters will be displayed and shared online during the 2017-18 school year!

    More details will be available in the fall.