Chronic absenteeism is defined as missing 10% or more of school days. This means when a student misses a total of 18 days over the whole school year, or roughly 2 days a month, they are considered chronically absent. 

When measuring chronic absenteeism, we are underscoring that every day counts, because we are taking both excused and unexcused absences into account. Truancy only accounts for unexcused absences.

This attendance metric is calculated by dividing the total number of days all students were present by the total number of days school was in session. 

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No, which is why it’s important to track both metrics. In fact, a high ADA rate can often mask high chronic absenteeism scores. This happens when a significant percentage of the absences are from the same group of students missing school regularly, as opposed to most students missing a couple of days throughout the year. It’s similar to the way that a high average math score can overshadow the students who are struggling and need extra help.

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Truancy is when students have a high amount of absences that have not been excused by their families. When families do not communicate with their school and provide an explanation for their student's absence, districts are obligated to follow state-mandated truancy protocols. This often includes official letters sent home. If these letters and requests for meetings are left unanswered, these cases can be escalated into the local court system.

While we are well known for our evidence-based, behaviorally informed attendance communications, EveryDay Labs is ready to be your partner for all things attendance improvement. Our solution includes a digital platform with all the data tools you need for attendance improvement; the only chronic absenteeism intervention with Strong Evidence rating under ESSA; individualized family support; ongoing professional learning, and a dedicated Customer Success Manager ready to support you every step of the way. 

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Some notable features include: 

• Attendance analytics dashboards updated nightly, directly informed by your SIS. 
• Automatically surfaced attendance trends and patterns such as day of the week absence, early chronic absenteeism, and prior year chronic absenteeism to make it easier to get ahead of more severe challenges
• Intervention management and tracking capabilities

Take a guided tour here. 

Yes. Within our EveryDay Platform, district staff can manage their truancy program. The Platform automatically flags students who are eligible for a Notification of Truancy, and with one click, we can print and mail these restorative notices on your behalf. Learn more about our restorative answer to truancy and our nonpunitive notices, which are 40% more effective than standard letters, here. 

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Yes! Outbound texts and emails to families can be manually sent as needed, or automatically sent when students reach a specified absence threshold. Chronic absenteeism and truancy programs are also managed directly from the EveryDay Platform, with EveryDay Labs printing on your behalf or self-print available.

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If an unrivaled evidence base and saving hours of administrative work with EveryDay Labs doesn’t pique your interest, there’s more to our solution than communications. Our EveryDay Platform provides the attendance analytics you need to drive effective interventions, and intervention management tools to stay organized and efficient. We also provide individualized family support to help families and students overcome barriers to attendance, ongoing professional learning to build capacity, and a dedicated user community to connect with other attendance champions.

Yes. Every message sent through the EveryDay Platform is automatically translated into a family’s home language. Supporting 75 languages, this covers the vast majority of languages spoken across the US. If a family replies in a different language than what’s on file, our system will detect and update communications for that conversation to match the language used. 

At the beginning of our partnership, we will work with your data team to set up automated data extracts from your SIS that will inform the reports you see within the EveryDay Platform as well as our evidence-based communications.

You can find the details of our student data security policy here.

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