This Attendance Messaging Planning Tool will help you to choose a key message that is:

• aligned with your school's data,
• strengths-based and
• informed by research (Ad Council Messaging Toolkit, Writing for Busy Readers Principles)

The Attendance Messaging Planning Tool will also help you:

• Determine your communication method by month
• Assign roles and responsibilities
• Track necessary details to execute the messaging
• Identify measures of effectiveness (how do you know if the messaging had the intended impact?)

Introducing SB 5007: Sponsored by Senators Wellman and Braun, SB 5007 aims to enhance statewide support for students who are chronically absent and at risk of not graduating high school.

This bill proposes:

1. Funding for ESDs: Providing training, coaching, and technical assistance to schools.
2. Grant Funding: Assisting districts, Tribes, and community organizations in developing early warning systems and implementing best practices to boost attendance and engagement.
3. Barrier Reduction: Supporting activities to reduce barriers in Open Doors programs.

Attendance Works, EdTrust, and Nat Malkus from AEI have launched a national initiative to reduce chronic absence by 50% within five years.

WA State Superintendent Chris Reykdal, along with 14 other state education leaders, has joined this effort to address the nation’s attendance crisis.

To support this challenge, AttendanceWorks is developing tools for states, including “The 50% Challenge: Crafting a State Road Map” toolkit, which will help create tailored statewide student engagement and attendance plans.

Under state statute (RCW 28A.225.020(2)), school districts have the flexibility to establish board policies that address excessive excused absences. This can include requiring medical documentation.

As highlighted in OSPI’s Mental Health Related Absence Guidance (pg.13), it is critical to consider the implications of requiring medical documentation. Securing and producing a doctor’s note may not be equitable. Access to a doctor can be highly variable due to family circumstances and the lack of availability of local mental health care resources. Because requiring medical documentation before excusing absence for medical reasons would negatively and disproportionately impact families with lower-income and less flexible jobs, OSPI does not recommend instituting such a requirement.

 Additionally, the frequency of care and/or healing required differs for every individual. OSPI strongly recommends that schools develop regular communication with students and families as part of their process before requiring medical documentation.

Keansburg High School in New Jersey faced severe absenteeism, with rates over 30 percent pre-pandemic and spiking to 40 percent afterward.

The leadership team used a Multi-Tiered System of Support, including a targeted mentor program to successfully reduced chronic absenteeism by 10% in both the 2022–23 and 2023–24 school years.

Here are the tiered steps KHS used to improve attendance:

• Tier 1 Universal: Attendance awareness campaign, professional development, and monitoring with social-emotional learning.
• Tier 2 Targeted: Small group interventions and parental involvement for students with over 10 absences, needing more individualized attention.
• Tier 3 Intensive: Positive staff-student relationships, 11 teacher volunteers, and daily mentor-student communications for 33 students.

For more details, you can refer to the full article on Edutopia here.