Partner Spotlight: Alpha Public Schools

Background 

Located in East San Jose, California, Alpha Public Schools is a network of four charter schools, serving 1,900 students in grades TK-12. Beginning a partnership with EveryDay Labs at the start of the 24-25 school year to complement their existing attendance efforts, the team at Alpha has seen an exciting increase in staff capacity and a decrease in student absenteeism this year! 

The Challenge

Similar to other California districts, Alpha Public Schools was facing elevated chronic absenteeism rates post-pandemic. Chris Kang, Chief Operating Officer at Alpha, knew that to get attendance where it needed to be, the network’s systems had to change. With numerous scattered procedures in place across the network, the first steps were creating a playbook for more consistent systems, building an attendance data dashboard, shifting from a truancy lens to a chronic absence-based system, and sending attendance letters home. All of these changes contributed to substantial improvements in attendance, but it was not sustainable work for the Front Office teams. While many systems had improved, Front Office staff were still leveraging different tools to cobble together their attendance outreach. Determining who needed a letter mailed or a phone call home was an incredibly arduous process that was difficult to do with accuracy and consistency. The team needed a more efficient way to deliver excellent communications and meaningful touchpoints to their school community, all while meeting the myriad other demands of the Front Office. 

The Solution 

After hearing from other California charter networks who partnered with EveryDay Labs for attendance improvement, highlighting the consistency in messaging and implementation that they offered to the district, Chris was intrigued. The attendance letters that the Alpha Front Office teams were mailing at the time had more of a punitive, truancy-based tone. Hearing that the chronic absenteeism nudges from EveryDay Labs were not only helpful and informative but also evidence-backed, shifting the work from a DIY system to a trusted partner felt like an easy choice. 

By bringing on EveryDay Labs as a partner, the teams that previously spent much of their time sending out chronic absenteeism letters now had more time freed up to focus on case management for students with more severe absenteeism and deliver more targeted support to students in Tier 2 and Tier 3. And while teams had access to various internally-created resources, the attendance-focused materials provided by EveryDay Labs were a welcome addition to the network’s attendance improvement toolbox. 

Alpha Public Schools continuously works to support its families, and their online Parent Center offers numerous resources to help families overcome barriers to attendance. EveryDay Labs was able to further support these connections to vital resources through their 24/7 Family Support Bot and the live Family Support Team, providing an additional touchpoint for family engagement and support.

The Results 

While the year isn’t over yet, Alpha has already seen some significant attendance improvements after leveraging the evidence backed chronic absenteeism nudges from EveryDay Labs. Of the students who received the mail & text intervention: 

• 51% improved their attendance rate
• 76% of at-risk students did not become chronically absent
• 18% of chronically absent students were no longer chronically absent

Aside from these gains in student attendance, doing away with DIY nudges and freeing up hours of time was a big win for Alpha educators. But it wasn’t just about the new communications. Chris shared appreciation for his dedicated Customer Success Manager; the tailored solution that “feels really specific to what we want to do,” and the built-in attendance improvement tools, including “the level of proactive resources: it’s really easy to connect into the Community and the resources available through emails, webinars, etc. It makes it really easy to connect on this topic that is very important.” 

Curious about how phasing out DIY nudges and bringing a partner on board can transform attendance in your school community? Reach out! 

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