Attendance Data, Trends, and Resources from our Partners at Attendance Works

Back in March, Founder & Executive Director of Attendance Works, Hedy Chang, spoke at our Power of Present Attendance Summit in Boston. In her keynote, she shared the latest data on how chronic absenteeism has increased in the wake of the pandemic and remote learning, emphasizing the deep need to implement new and creative practices to increase learning opportunities. Click here to watch Hedy Chang’s full keynote, and read on for the data highlights and resources you can leverage to improve chronic absenteeism in your district. 

‍The Impact of Remote Learning 

The unprecedented chronic absenteeism happening nationwide is the result of numerous factors, one of them being the enduring impact of remote learning, particularly in districts that stayed remote for an extended period of time. 

Chronic absence was even higher for students of color during remote learning, as shown in this data comparing chronic absence rates by learning mode and racial and ethnic groups. 

How Can We Bring More Students Back? 

This increase in chronic absenteeism is not breaking news to educators, and districts are already working hard to bring more students back into the classroom for critical instructional time and social-emotional development. Hedy Chang emphasizes the importance of using a multi-tiered system of supports and reinvesting in the foundational building blocks of school such as positive relationships, traditions and celebrations, and community-building practices like advisories and/or morning meetings and traditions and celebrations. 

Chang also notes that educators can leverage technology to deepen and scale their attendance supports, spanning from clear and concise multi-channel communication to close monitoring of attendance data. EveryDay Intervention can also support scaling attendance work across the district through a turnkey mail and text intervention that requires no training or change of practices for school staff. 

Attendance Works has recently released their Showing Up Matters For R.E.A.L. Framework to help districts make the case to their families that showing up to school is worthwhile. 

At a glance, this framework is grounded in a whole child perspective of learning, and emphasizes for both educators and families that schools are the place where students can:

• Build Routines
• Increase Engagement
• Provide Access to Resources 
• Support Learning 

You can learn more about Showing Up Matters for REAL here, including a toolkit detailing the approach and free messaging resources. 

Click here to learn more about EveryDay Labs’ proven effective solutions for reducing chronic absenteeism.