Long Beach Unified School District in California – “The team established a partnership with a local housing project where some of their chronically absent students live and coordinated attendance outreach activities, which included workshops to educate teachers, staff and guardians on the consequences of missing school…the district turned their focus to food security, internet connectivity for families in need and online suicide prevention assessments. “
Attendance Works Mix of tactics – “Identifying students at risk of absenteeism requires a mix of tactics. For example, gathering information such as which students lack internet connectivity, who was chronically absent prior to COVID-19 and understanding whether a student comes from a low-income family, has a disability, is involved in foster care or is homeless, can help staff better recognize each student’s circumstance and develop a more effective support system.”
Harvard University and school districts weekly postcards weekly postcards sent home to families of students in early grades as absences occurred. The program lasted over the course of 13 weeks during the 2018-2019 school year and included 5,602 students from two unnamed districts. Each card contained a handwritten message including a count of cumulative days missed, information on the lessons missed in class that day, and a guide to help parents understand how the absences impacted their child’s academic progress. Researchers found that this approach reduced student absences by an estimated 7.9 percent.
City Year Sacramento California – turned its focus to family engagement. Members made about 600 calls to parents and students to check in on well-being, ask about obstacles to learning and provide technical support on tools like Google Classrooms and Zoom. They also helped translate district communications into other languages. The list of students contacted was based on those who did not participate in online learning activities. Read article