February Attendance Tips: Surfacing & Acting on Tier 2 Trends

In this month’s webinar just for EveryDay Labs users, we covered some of the latest features of the EveryDay Platform, and explored timely strategies to address the different types of absenteeism trends that Tier 2 students may be exhibiting right now. By focusing on the right data, smart action today can mean a stronger end to the school year. Read on for a peek into our members-only webinar for actionable steps you can take today to get more students back on track this year.   

A Critical Moment for Tier 2 students

Not just for groundhogs and chocolate, February is a key time to offer targeted support to students currently in Tier 2. If left unaddressed, students in this tier are likely to end the year with even worse attendance. In fact, we’ve found in analyzing the data from our partners that 87% of students who were in Tier 2 in February ended the school year chronically absent. 

But it doesn’t need to be this way! By locating the students with a 10-15% absence rate, and digging further into their patterns and trends, you can provide informed outreach that moves students in the right direction. 

So, What Should We Do Right Now?

Take a look at your latest attendance data and notice the patterns and trends. Are students missing specific days of the week? Are they exhibiting trends like persistent, acute, or recent absenteeism? By tuning in to these patterns and trends, you can more efficiently and effectively intervene. 

Tell Me More About These Absenteeism Trends

It’s common that Tier 2 students, with a 10-15% absence rate, exhibit one of three absenteeism trends: 

• Early acute absenteeism: students who missed most days at the beginning of the school year 
• Recent acute absenteeism: students who have an increase in absences in the past two months
• Persistent absenteeism: students who are consistently missing 10-20% each month  

After diving into your attendance data, you’ll likely notice these trends emerging. Once equipped with the data, put students who fall into each of these categories into an intervention group and track them until the end of the year. 

For the Early Acute students, a positive reinforcement message celebrating recent strong attendance can help keep their momentum going. For the Recent Acute students, meeting 1:1 to understand what is driving their recent absences and offering support can help them get back on track. And for Persistent Absenteeism students, a barrier assessment may be in order, as well as a family and student discussion around the importance of strong attendance. 

Are there other patterns I should be tracking? 

Tracking attendance patterns early can play a pivotal role in helping more of these Tier 2 students end the school year with better attendance. Continue to dive into the data and see if there are students extending vacations, absent for numerous single days, multiple days in a row, or shared household absenteeism. 

Students exhibiting any of these patterns can also be placed into an intervention group that should be tracked through the end of the school year. 

What are the best tools to do this work? 

The EveryDay Platform, with attendance analytics dashboards updated nightly paired with intervention tracking capabilities, makes it easy to surface these patterns and trends and act accordingly. If you already have access to some attendance data, our Data Inquiry Guide can help you dive into the students who need support and track them over time.