EveryDay Labs vs. PowerSchool Attendance Intervention

You may be looking beyond the school walls for a partner in attendance work, a wise decision that will support your students, families, and busy teams with ever-growing to-do lists. The good news is there are quite a few options to choose from, but it may feel overwhelming to decide which direction to take and which solution will work best for your district. 

EveryDay Labs and PowerSchool Attendance Intervention (formerly known as Kinvolved) are two popular attendance partners. As both are designed with the goal of improving student attendance, there are several similarities and differences between the two solutions.  Read on to discover how each of these solutions can support your efforts in reducing chronic absenteeism and truancy.

Similarities: Attendance Data Analytics Platform and Multi-Channel Communications

EveryDay Labs and PowerSchool Attendance Intervention both feature attendance data analytics and strategic family communications intended to help increase attendance and support families and students. This includes:

• Robust data analytics platform
• Ability to send digital messages directly from the platform, leveraging the latest student attendance data.
• Family communication templates including: chronic absenteeism communications and positive messaging.

While there is a clear overlap in what each partner offers, the approaches, resources, and research base for each solution differ in several key ways. 

Key Differences

Attendance Communications: Research-Backed Design to Drive Behavior Change

Both EveryDay Labs and PowerSchool Attendance Intervention provide digital attendance communications to help address chronic absenteeism. However, EveryDay Labs goes further with communication strategies intentionally designed to increase visibility and reinforce behavior change. 

Physical Letters That Stay Visible

In addition to digital messages, EveryDay Labs also mails physical attendance notices. These printed nudges are designed to be clear, actionable, and easy to understand, and they serve as a tangible reminder that often stays visible in the home. Research shows that mailed attendance communications can significantly impact future behavior by remaining in sight longer than digital-only outreach, which can be more easily overlooked or forgotten.

Behavioral Science-Driven Messaging

EveryDay Labs incorporates social comparison visuals, such as simple bar charts, into their mailed and digital communications to help families understand how their child’s attendance compares to a typical peer. This proven strategy helps nudge families toward the average behavior in a motivating, non-punitive way. For families with a higher number of absences, this comparison is thoughtfully removed or adapted to avoid discouragement.

Frequency and Reinforcement

To reinforce behavior change, EveryDay Labs uses a multi-touch communication approach. Families can receive multiple nudges throughout the year, each one reinforcing the importance of attendance and offering timely, relevant support. PowerSchool Attendance Intervention typically triggers a one-time notification at a specific attendance threshold, which may not offer the same opportunity for sustained engagement.

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Evidence Base

While both EveryDay Labs and PowerSchool Attendance Intervention are rooted in research-backed practices, only EveryDay Labs has strong, independently verified evidence showing its impact on reducing chronic absenteeism across K–12 students.

Tested through numerous randomized controlled trials, chronic absenteeism nudges from EveryDay Labs are proven to reduce chronic absenteeism over and above any other district initiative, which is why their intervention is the only one to be given the “Strong Evidence” distinction under Johns Hopkins’ Evidence for ESSA. 

Truancy notices from EveryDay Labs also have the evidence-backed advantage, proven to be 40% more effective than standard truancy notices, which are often punitive and confusing. 

In a recent study of an EveryDay Labs partnership with DC Public Schools and DC Public Charter Schools, EveryDay Labs chronic absenteeism nudges not only reduced absenteeism by 6.3%, but were also 52 times more cost-effective in recovering absences than mentoring and 21 times more cost effective than tutoring. 

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Family Support Features

While both solutions give educators the ability to send out family communications directly from the platform, EveryDay Labs adds several additional layers of family support to help districts strengthen family-school partnerships. This includes: 

24/7 Family Support Bot—Upon responding to a chronic absenteeism text nudge, families are instantly connected to our Family Support Bot. Designed to help families overcome barriers to attendance, it serves up district and community resources to help make getting to school easier, including transportation, wellness services, and food distribution. 

Multilingual Family Support Team– Whether referred by the Family Support Bot or the dedicated phone number on the mailed chronic absenteeism nudge, families can find additional support via the live, multilingual Family Support Team. Ready to answer questions about student attendance and direct families to the right resource, no other attendance solution provides tailored support with a human touch quite like our Family Support Team.

Tailored to District Needs

Every district is different, and so are their families. That’s why EveryDay Labs offer flexibility in the types of communications and their featured content. A new feature of the EveryDay Labs platform includes a bank of attendance communication content, where educators can customize the messages going out to families so that they are aligned with their attendance practices, resonate with their diverse audience, and help nurture stronger family-district partnerships. These communications are all triggered by student data, including unique patterns only identified by the EveryDay Labs platform. Our expert Customer Success Managers will help guide districts in selecting and implementing the communications that will work best for them.

Professional Learning

Both PowerSchool Attendance Intervention and EveryDay Labs intend to support all educators in improving attendance. However, EveryDay Labs goes the extra mile with ongoing professional learning throughout the school year to help educators build capacity for more efficient and effective attendance work. This includes monthly live webinars led by resident attendance experts, along with a pre-recorded series that coaches educators on best practices for a tiered approach to attendance improvement. Additionally, EveryDay Labs provides a forum for users to connect via a dedicated Community, where teams can connect, celebrate, share best practices, and seek out advice from other practitioners dedicated to attendance improvement. 

Customer Support

We often hear that our level of customer service is one of the big things that stands out for our partners. Attendance improvement work is difficult, which is why EveryDay Labs provides each of our partners with a dedicated Customer Success Manager, available for regular meetings and ongoing guidance throughout the year. Additionally, users can reach our dedicated support team via email or chat directly within the EveryDay Labs platform, with a response time of usually 12 hours or less. 

Interested in hearing more about how EveryDay Labs can support your attendance efforts? Reach out anytime! 

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