Partner Spotlight: Glendora Unified School District, California

Background: 

Located in Southern California about 30 miles east of Los Angeles, Glendora Unified School District serves over 6,500 students. Like many other districts in California and across the nation, Glendora faced elevated levels of chronic absenteeism in the post-Covid years. Over the past few years, Jocie Wilson, Director of Student & Family Support Services, has been leading the charge to improve attendance district-wide, with steady, sustainable success. 

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The Challenge: Policy Inconsistencies and Too Many Excuses 

Prior to the pandemic, Glendora had enjoyed strong student attendance. So when the pandemic brought all of its disruptions and challenges, the district was unprepared for the tidal wave of student absenteeism that hit schools nationwide.  In fact, in some ways existing policies and practices significantly contributed to their chronic absenteeism challenge. Schools had lax and inconsistent attendance policies and improvement practices, and many families felt that as long as they excused an absence, the days missed didn’t really matter. In turn, the chronic absenteeism rates rose to 17.5% in the 22-23 school year. 

The Solution: Systemic Shifts, Data Driven Teams, and Fewer Excuses Accepted 

Big changes began in the 23-24 school year as the district put more standardized attendance practices in place, with all attendance clerks trained on the new, consistent attendance policy and equipped to enforce it. This included talking points for smooth family conversations around the new policy, as well as a new protocol for addressing the excuses that were contributing to chronic absenteeism. Before, families would often call and excuse a student absence due to a trip to Disneyland or some other fun activity. These types of reasons for missing school were no longer accepted as excused, and were instead coded as “Guardian Verified Unexcused”  

With new understandings in place, attendance improvement became a team effort.  School-based, data-driven teams were created, where attendance clerks met monthly to review attendance data, and quarterly to connect with district administrators and site-based school nurses and counselors. 

Continuing to nurture a positive culture of attendance, Glendora began a partnership with EveryDay Labs to further support educators, families, and students. This included ongoing professional learning and access to the EveryDay Labs platform, where staff could quickly view not just the latest attendance data, but patterns and trends for more proactive support. 

EveryDay Labs also began to send mail and text attendance nudges to families of at risk and chronically absent students. Prior to the EveryDay Labs partnership, families were receiving more general, undifferentiated communications. The shift to personalized mail and text communications brought families deeper insights into their student’s attendance, presenting actual days missed and how they compared to their peers.   

While the SARB is state mandated across California, designed to address truancy, it is not always the most restorative. Jocie is most proud of Glendora’s shift to making the SARB process more family-friendly, and often a last resort option. “The tone of the text and letters just fits with where we’re trying to go. We don’t want to do the finger-wagging stuff, no one likes that and it puts families on the defensive. The partnership is aligned with where we are at as a district and the families appreciate getting the information in a matter of fact kind of way… the bonus of EveryDay Labs is the reach is so much wider than what we could do manpower-wise.”

Proactive attendance work was a key part of the strategy, but Glendora was also mindful of helping families in need overcome barriers to attendance. This included home visits and family attendance nights (with dinner and childcare provided) tailored to re-engage chronically absent students and their families. 

The Glendora Gives Resource Center was created to further support families in overcoming barriers to attendance, offering complimentary clean clothes, toiletries, and school supplies. Designed to feel welcoming, like a real store, students and families could shop what they needed to feel comfortable going to school every day, and if needed, were also referred to nearby food pantries. 

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The Results: Chronic Absenteeism Rates Cut in Half!

By the end of the 23-24 school year, chronic absenteeism rates had gone down from 17.5% to 11.2%. After more hard work in the 24-25 school year, Glendora closed out the year with a chronic absenteeism rate of 7.6%! 

In addition to district-wide gains, 65% of Glendora students who received the EveryDay Labs attendance nudges improved their attendance. 

Want to learn more about Glendora’s work to improve student attendance? Tune in on Thursday, August 14 to hear from Jocie Wilson and 4 other outstanding educators who won a 2025 Attendance Innovation Award!