Check out this video, Is Your Attendance Strategy Working, led by ESD Attendance Coordinators.

This session explores how to measure and monitor metrics like average daily attendance and chronic absenteeism to evaluate attendance interventions. It also highlights strategies for using data to make quick adjustments and shares examples from schools to inspire improvements.

Washington State law (RCW 28A.225.151) requires school districts to submit student-level truancy data to OSPI to capture actions taken under RCW.28A.225.030. 

Truancy actions are submitted through CEDARS from your student information system (SIS) to CEDARS Attributes & Programs File (I), Element I06 – Attribute or Program Code.

Review the Definitions

• CEDARS Appendix F- Student Attributes & Programs 2024-25 contains valid values, descriptions and reporting guidance for each of the available truancy codes.

Review your Data

• Districts can review their Truancy data in CEDARS> Reports> Attributes & Programs> Dynamic Attributes and Programs or CEDARS> Reports> Records Loaded.

Collaborate with your CEDARS Administrator

• Work with your District CEDARS Data Administrators to ensure your truancy data is captured in your SIS to accurately report the required data to CEDARS.

EveryDay Labs is hosting a webinar featuring  Pflugerville ISD, to hear how the team is shifting their attendance improvement efforts to be more efficient, data-driven, and family-centered.

Date & Time: April 24, 2025, 10:00 AM

Registration: Webinar Registration - Zoom

Ford Middle School's Erica Bravo, Administrative Assistant & Attendance Personnel, has created two impactful resources to support students and families:

• Attendance Roadmap to Success: This document provides a clear, actionable guide to help improve attendance rates, ensuring students stay on track academically.
• Avoid the Spring Attendance Slump: Sent out prior to spring break, this resource reminds families when school resumes and emphasizes the importance of consistent attendance to finish the year strong.

As part of our ongoing efforts to support student attendance and engagement regionally, the Puget Sound Educational Service District (PSESD) Attendance & Reengagement Cooperative Pilot has been offering Circle Keeper Process Training with the National Compadres Network to our partners over the last year. This relational approach is rooted in trust, growth, dignity and healing, centering on authentic restorative practices that make our students feel seen, heard, valued and engaged.

State Superintendent Chris Reykdal has responded to recent federal actions affecting education. In a 10-minute video, he addressed the U.S. Department of Education’s February 14 “Dear Colleague Letter” attempting to prohibit DEI programs.

Additionally, following a March 20 executive order to reduce the Department's resources, Reykdal emphasized its vital role in addressing educational inequities and protecting civil rights. He reaffirmed Washington state’s commitment to these principles and continued investment in public education, despite decreasing federal support.

Do OSPI absence rules mean that a student can never be marked absent if they are tardy? 

No. WAC 392-401-040 states that a school or district shall not convert or combine tardies into absences that contribute to a truancy petition. Schools and districts are still able to mark a student absent after a certain threshold if their local student information system can differentiate absences due to a tardy and absences where the student does not attend the class at all.

Local systems must be able to exclude tardy absences from a report that is used for the purposes of filing a truancy petition. Some districts approach this by using a tardy code (e.g. Missed Most of Class or Tardy Absence), allowing a school to differentiate these absences, and respond/intervene accordingly.