Customer Spotlight: Big Attendance Gains in Tempe Elementary School District

Aside from the slower summer pace just within reach, one of the most exciting parts of closing out the school year is reflecting on progress and achievements. That’s why we were thrilled to sit down with Jill Armstrong, Instructional Support-Student Support/Success at Thew Elementary in Tempe Elementary School District to discuss a wildly impressive transformation. 

The Challenge

While EveryDay Labs works districtwide with Tempe Elementary, and has seen chronic absenteeism drop by 15% since the beginning of the partnership, Thew Elementary was facing some particularly challenging numbers. Serving 442 students in Tempe, Arizona, Thew began the school year with a 39% chronic absenteeism rate. After a school year packed with a sharp focus on attendance and fun incentives, they saw a 17% drop in chronic absenteeism, while simultaneously boosting their Average Daily Attendance (ADA) by 3%. How did they do it? Read on for the details! 

Centered and Prepared: Targeted Coaching Over the Summer Months

Before a single student walked through the doors in August, the groundwork for this massive turnaround was already underway. Over the summer, one of our resident attendance experts sat down with Jill for a series of high-impact coaching sessions designed to set the school up for success. Together, they: 

• Looked at historical data to establish realistic yet ambitious goals 
• Explicitly embedded attendance strategies into the school’s 90-day improvement plan. 

EveryDay Labs provided Jill with a customized attendance procedures document, detailing interventions across every tier of their MTSS, month by month. Getting started felt a bit less daunting with step-by-step launch guides and structured monthly templates for her brand new attendance committee’s meetings. “I want to thank you for setting me up for success,” shared Jill, affirming how this collaborative summer prep gave her the resources and the confidence she needed to hit the ground running.

Data-Driven Teamwork: Building the Foundation

While she was equipped with a strong plan and new insights, Jill also knew that true schoolwide change couldn't happen in a vacuum. Asking “Who can I move around or what teachers could help push this attendance movement,” she began to design her attendance strategy and put together a dedicated attendance committee. 

This collaborative team of new staff, veteran teachers, and the school social worker rolled up their sleeves to build a solid Tier 1 foundation, ensuring that attendance was top-of-mind for every student and faculty member. This included attendance shout-outs in morning announcements, attendance mini-lessons in every classroom, and proactive communications from EveryDay Labs to help families understand the importance of daily attendance and give them an updated glimpse into their student’s attendance and how it compares to their peers. 

To power their efforts, the committee leaned heavily on the EveryDay Platform. “It’s a great tool because it’s so easy to pull the data and it updates every day…. I can see the district view of where we are. If I want to really dive into just one grade level, or go back to history from last year, it’s just very accessible and easy to read.” 

By leveraging the platform during their regular meetings to closely examine data and track trends, the team was able to make informed, proactive decisions to support the entire school community. “We used EveryDay Labs the most, to motivate our students and our staff and talk about it with our families.”  

But without a doubt, the most fun of the Tier 1 foundations was the incentives program. 

Gamifying Attendance: Incentives that Fueled the Buzz

To get kids excited to come to school, even when parents were tired or routines were dragging, Thew Elementary gamified the experience. They created a massive attendance board, centrally located, where every student saw the stars, percentages, and moving parts that showed who was in the lead.

Different grade levels won incentives throughout the year, keeping the excitement alive from August to May. For example, the second-grade class had a particularly tough time with attendance this year. To give them an extra boost, custom sticker charts were brought into their classrooms for motivation. The hard work paid off, as the second graders rallied and won an ice cream party in May!

The school's creative incentive lineup featured something for everyone, including: 

• Over 100 board games sourced through DonorsChoose
• The "Internet Cafe": A popular monthly incentive for older students, offering coveted extra screen time with their friends.
• High-energy dance parties for the younger grades.
• Perks & Treats: Dress-down days, ice cream socials, and even a special Chick-fil-A meal.

Overcoming Barriers, Internal and External 

With teachers already managing packed schedules, getting everyone on board with prioritizing attendance work wasn’t always easy. To overcome the "one more thing on my plate" hurdle, Jill doubled down with her team: 

• Emphasizing the 'Why': The committee continuously reminded staff that regular attendance directly correlates with academic growth and social-emotional well-being.
• Morning Meeting Push-ins: Jill actively scheduled times to join classroom morning meetings and support teachers' attendance mini-lessons.
• Professional Development Role-Play: Jill ran attendance workshops, using ChatGPT to generate custom role-playing cards featuring realistic scenarios (e.g., “A student comes in every single day saying they need to go to the nurse—how do you handle this?” or “How do you approach a phone call with this specific parent profile?”). This hands-on practice helped teachers feel confident and comfortable making outreach calls.

And speaking of phone calls. Personalized outreach to chronically absent families was a favorite Tier 2 intervention. Teams often used the EveryDay Labs Family Call Script to help guide their conversations, understand the ongoing barriers to attendance and offer support. 

Finally, transportation, as for many students across the country, was a common barrier, and the school enlisted volunteers from the local church to help drive students who needed a lift. 

Leaving a Legacy

As Jill Armstrong prepares to transition into a new role as a Student Support Specialist in the Gilbert School District, she is excited to apply many of these high-impact strategies, and is proud of the legacy she leaves behind at Thew. 

"The best part was when Nate [Thew’s principal] would return from district-level meetings and tell us, 'The buzz is out. The district office is asking: What are you doing over at Thew? Who is Jill and who is her committee?'"

By equipping a deeply supportive, creative, and unified staff with a toolbox of coaching, proactive communications and easily accessible data from EveryDay Labs, Thew Elementary proved that any school can rewrite its attendance story. Congratulations to Jill and the entire Bulldog community on a phenomenal school year!

Curious about bringing on a toolbox of your own for better attendance? Reach out! 

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