MTSS Corner: Setting Clear Expectations for Attendance Interventions
Attendance is a critical factor in student success, yet so many districts are still struggling with chronic absenteeism. To effectively combat this challenge, education leaders must rally their teams around clear goals, expectations, and strategies for better attendance. This often involves a multi-tiered approach to student outreach and intervention that helps you stay organized and maximize your impact. Read on for four key components to setting clear expectations for attendance improvement and effective interventions.
1. Getting Metrics Straight: Chronic Absenteeism vs. Truancy
Even if you’re already a savvy attendance aficionado, the same may not be true for every member of your team. It’s worthwhile to spend some time level setting on what is chronic absenteeism: missing 10% or more of school days and includes excused & unexcused absences vs. truancy: only unexcused absences. Both issues require targeted strategies to ensure students are engaged and attending school regularly.
Truancy is an important metric to watch in order to stay within state compliance, but chronic absenteeism helps reframe the attendance issue and posits a new outlook for students and families: every day counts, excused or unexcused. When you focus on improving chronic absenteeism rates, your truancy rates will likely improve as well.
Differentiating chronic absenteeism from truancy and keeping your eye on these metrics is essential to identifying and addressing overall trends and students who need extra support. Ensuring that all staff have access to this data is a critical component of implementing targeted interventions that address the unique and shared challenges that students and their families may be facing.
2. Monthly Attendance Team Meetings
Creating and sustaining an attendance team that meets at least once a month is crucial for monitoring progress and strategizing interventions. During these meetings, it’s essential to analyze attendance data, including identifying patterns, discussing barriers to attendance, and sharing insights across the team.
Sharing this data with all stakeholders—teachers, administrators, and even students and parents when appropriate (and honoring privacy guidelines)—can foster a collaborative approach to attendance challenges and keep the momentum going as you work to support students. Transparency helps build a culture of accountability and ensures everyone understands the importance of regular school attendance. Click here for more on building an all-star attendance team.
3. Leveraging a Multi-Tiered Approach to Attendance
You may already be organizing your efforts around an MTSS/RTI model, with different initiatives in place for students at various levels of absenteeism. But without clear expectations for what those interventions are, intentional resource allocation, and the data that drives it all, your pyramid is at high risk of getting out of whack. While many educators report spending the majority of their time supporting higher tier students with more severe attendance challenges, revamping where you place your efforts can pay dividends throughout the school year.
a. Place a renewed focus on At-Risk and Tier 2 Students
Research has shown that at-risk and Tier 2 students are much more likely to get back on track than their peers in Tier 3, which is why taking your eye off these students can result in worsening absenteeism rates, while putting new strategies in place to support these students can greatly improve attendance rates. Getting a strategic family communication and support plan in place as well as targeted campaigns informed by real time data is a great place to begin. Consistent monitoring allows teams to evaluate the effectiveness of these interventions and make necessary adjustments in real time.
b. Address Both Systemic and Individual Barriers to Attendance
It's vital for the team to recognize that barriers to attendance can be both shared by many students across the school or district, or be a more unique experience. Systemic issues may include school policies or transportation challenges, while individual barriers might involve health issues or family circumstances. Getting to the root cause with a barrier assessment, family feedback, and tailored interventions around these systemic and individual barriers can ensure a comprehensive approach to improving attendance.
For example, implementing programs that provide transportation support (systemic barriers) or leverage tools that connect families to district and community resources like our Family Support Bot & Family Support Team can help mitigate barriers to attendance.
4. Teamwork: Ensure All School Staff Understand Their Role in Reducing Absenteeism
Finally, for your initiatives and interventions to be effective, it is essential that all school staff understand they have a role to play in reducing absenteeism. Every member of the school community, from teachers to administrative staff, plays a critical part in fostering a supportive environment that encourages regular attendance.
Training sessions can help staff recognize the signs of chronic absenteeism and equip them with strategies to engage students and families. When everyone is on the same page, it creates a unified front against absenteeism and enhances the support network available to students.
Setting clear expectations for your attendance initiatives and the interventions designed to transform your attendance rates and student outcomes is crucial. By focusing on strategically leveraging data, tailored interventions, and the collective role of school staff, districts can create a culture of attendance that keeps students on the path to success.
Looking for a partner in building staff capacity for attendance work? Reach out anytime!