Attendance Insights Briefing: Tangipahoa Parish School System & EveryDay Labs Case Study

Background

The Tangipahoa Parish School System (TPSS) serves 19,200 students across 34 campuses in southeastern Louisiana.  TPSS serves a diverse student body, with 78% students qualifying for free and reduced lunch, and provides families with a variety of school choice options to support every learner in becoming college and career ready. 

After the pandemic it became clear that low student attendance was getting in the way of academic achievement.   In the 23-24 school year, over 37% of Tangipahoa students were chronically absent, missing 10% or more school days. The district wasn’t alone: data compiled by Future Ed revealed that chronic absenteeism worsened across Louisiana in 23-24.  District leaders were concerned about the high rates of chronic absenteeism, as research shows students who are chronically absent are more likely to fall behind academically and are at a greater risk of dropping out of school.¹

Recognizing that addressing chronic absenteeism would be necessary in order to increase academic achievement, Superintendent Melissa Stilley prioritized improvement as one of three strategic “rocks”, and TPSS launched a partnership with EveryDay Labs in 2024.  The partnership was part of a pilot funded by the Louisiana State Department of Education to improve student attendance in select districts across the state.

Over the first full year of the partnership, TPSS achieved incredible success, reducing the number of chronically absent students by 19% (6.8 percentage points), and increased attendance by over 43,000 days.²

The Challenge

More than a third of students were chronically absent, which was impacting their learning as well as their teachers’ ability to move through the curriculum. District leaders knew that addressing this challenge would require sustained focus across all levels of district and school staff.

While strong community partnerships provided resources for students and families in need, school staff needed better ways to identify students who were chronically absent or at risk of becoming chronically absent in the future.  School staff – all of whom were busy juggling multiple responsibilities – also needed more time-efficient ways to communicate with the families of these students, and an easy-to-use data and intervention coordination system to inform their strategy.  

Existing tools didn’t allow school staff to easily do attendance improvement work. Staff were bogged down with sending compliance letters and trying to make sense of lengthy reports from their SIS,  leaving them with little time for school culture initiatives, family outreach like phone calls home, attendance meetings, home visits, and coordination with the court system. Work was inefficient and not as high impact as everyone would have liked.  

Furthermore, families often didn’t know that their child’s attendance was problematic until they were already chronically absent or truant – making early intervention a challenge.

District leadership knew that driving attendance improvement required an upgrade in systems, more consistent communication with families, and deeper training and professional learning for school staff, and asked EveryDay Labs for support in each of these areas, as part of a pilot program funded by the Louisiana Department of Education.

Taking Action

Attendance leadership began at the top. Superintendent Stilley issued an attendance challenge, which every school accepted.  She shined a consistent spotlight on attendance improvement, sending weekly emails shouting out schools that were meeting goals, and consistently communicating with the community about attendance.  

Director of Student Services Gary Porter and Coordinator of Student Services Alexa Hookfin were charged with implementing a partnership with EveryDay Labs in order to support school attendance improvement efforts. 

EveryDay Labs began with family communication, sending chronic absence “nudges” to alert families about their student’s attendance and offer resources.  These research-based letters and text messages were sent to families of students who had missed 5% or more school days, and were either chronically absent or at risk of becoming chronically absent in the future.  The nudges were sent directly to families by EveryDay Labs, to free up valuable time for school staff, and produced an immediate impact, with 5,470 students improving their attendance after receiving a nudge letter in the first 5 months of the partnership.

“The chronic absence nudges immediately made conversations with parents and families easier. The tone of the nudge letters is serious but not threatening, making parents more receptive to talking about attendance, and they’ll call to let us know what is going on,” Hookfin explained.  “They also improved our communication with families while saving staff time, because EveryDay Labs sends them out.”

Next, the partnership turned to equipping school staff in their efforts to build a strong school climate and provide differentiated attendance supports to students and families.  TPSS leadership asked EveryDay Labs to provide a data platform to enable staff to better identify students needing support and coordinate interventions and strategies.  “It was critical that the EveryDay Labs platform is easy for our truancy designees to use, and not intimidating for folks who are less comfortable with technology. They’re able to quickly identify patterns and identify which students need support, instead of struggling to pull hard-to-understand reports.”

Staff used the platform in order to more easily identify and address needs that individual students and their families were facing.  “We’ve been able to document the aversions and challenges that students and families have – things like buses or uniforms – and work more systematically to address these issues,” shared Hookfin. The platform also surfaced needs schools didn’t previously know about, when families request resources through the EveryDay Labs chatbot.  “We are blessed to have strong community partners who help us meet the unique needs of families.”

EveryDay Labs also provided professional development for school truancy designees to train them on evidence-based attendance improvement practices, and to take steps to address their school’s “dip days” and support students. “These professional learning workshops were very well received,” Hookfin explained, “and supported a wide range of staff tackling attendance.” 

Results

TPSS was successful in reducing chronic absenteeism by 19% (6.8 percentage points) in the first full year of implementation from ‘23-’24 school year to the ‘24-’25 school year. This is particularly remarkable because TPSS – like districts across the state – had seen attendance worsen the previous school year.

This dramatic improvement reveals the power of leadership, sustained focus, and having the right partnerships in place.  Notably, the district made gains amongst all grade levels and student populations, as seen in Figure 1, 2 and 3 below. ³

Figure 1: Chronic Absenteeism Improvement by Grade from SY 23-24 to SY 24-25

Figure 2: Chronic Absenteeism Improvement by Race / Ethnicity from SY 23-24 to SY 24-25

Figure 3: Chronic Absenteeism Improvement by FRPL Status from SY 23-24 to SY 24-25

For more information, reach out to Emily Bailard

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1: Effects of chronic absenteeism on student academic performance, high school graduation, drug and alcohol use, incarceration, and adverse outcomes have been well documented. A sample of research includes the following: Gottfried, M. A. Evaluating the relationship between student attendance and achievement in urban elementary and middle schools: An instrumental variables approach. American Educational Research Journal 47(2), 434-465 (2010). Gershenson, S., Jacknowitz, A. & Brannegan, A. Are student absences worth the worry in US primary schools? Education Finance and Policy 12(2), 137-165 (2017). Allensworth, E. M. & Easton, J. Q. What matters for staying on-track and graduating in Chicago public high schools: A close look at course grades, failures, and attendance in the freshman year. Chicago: Consortium on Chicago School Research (2007). Goodman, J. Flaking out: Student absences and snow days as disruptions of instructional time Working Paper No. 20221 (National Bureau of Economic Research, 2014), Gottfried, M. A. The detrimental effects of missing school: Evidence from urban siblings. American Journal of Education 117(2), 147-182 (2011). Byrnes, V. & Reyna, R. Summary of state level analysis of early warning indicators. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University School of Education, Everyone Graduates Center (2012). Schoeneberger, J. Longitudinal attendance patterns: developing high school dropouts. The Clearinghouse: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas 85(1), 7-14 (2012). Henry, K. L., & Thornberry, T. P. Truancy and escalation of substance use during adolescence. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs 71(1), 115-124 (2010). Baker, M. L., Sigmon, J. N. & Nugent, M. E. Truancy reduction: Keeping students in school. Juvenile Justice Bulletin (2001).

2: Based on reductions in chronic absenteeism rate from SY 23-24 to SY 24-25 and improvement in average daily attendance

3: Data is preliminary and will differ from final state reporting. Includes all students enrolled on the last day of school.