Partner Spotlight: Hamden Public Schools, Connecticut

Background

‍
Nestled in south-central Connecticut, Hamden Public Schools serves a diverse student population across its 11 schools. Even before the pandemic, district leaders were keeping a close eye on attendance. But, post-pandemic chronic absenteeism surged. Sue Smey, Director of Media, Assessment, and Intervention knew it was time to re-focus on attendance and bring the entire district community together to help students be more present.

The Challenge: Post-Pandemic Attendance Slump and Scaling Support

‍
The district began partnering with EveryDay Labs before the pandemic, initially focusing on sending out mailings to help families better understand their student’s attendance. “I was doing that myself—printing and mailing reports to families three times a year. It was a huge task,” said Sue. “Having EveryDay Labs take that on was extremely helpful.” When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, attendance efforts, including the partnership with EveryDay Labs, took a backseat. But when schools reopened, absenteeism surged. “Chronic absenteeism had just gone through the roof,” Sue explained. “So in the 2021–22 school year, we knew it was time to really get back to the work.”

At the same time, Sue’s team recognized the need for a more systematic approach to improving attendance across the district. “We didn’t have the manpower to do what needed to be done. The scope of the problem was too big.” A renewed partnership with EveryDay Labs in SY22-23 was key to scaling the capacity of the team and tackling this growing challenge.

The Solution: Systems, Tools, and School-Level Buy-In

‍
Hamden developed a comprehensive system to address attendance, aligning EveryDay Labs’ nudges and dashboards with district protocols and grounding their strategy in tiered support, with universal Tier 1 strategies, targeted Tier 2 interventions like the state-funded LEAP program, and tailored approaches at the school level. 

They knew that the key to succeeding was setting clear expectations, making sure everyone understood their role, and having the right system for tracking the data. “We established detailed, step-by-step, month-by-month guidance for our schools,” said Sue. “It outlined how to identify students not showing up, when to expect EveryDay Labs communications, and what additional interventions schools should implement for students with more severe absenteeism.”

The district also emphasized school-based teams. “Every school was expected to have an attendance team. We wanted them to go beyond what we were doing at the district level.” Sue’s team created a centralized “one-stop shop” with linked resources—attendance data, intervention menus, communication scripts, and EveryDay Labs tools—accessible to school attendance team members.

The EveryDay Labs dashboard was especially powerful in supporting these efforts: “It’s really helped us get to the next level,” Sue noted. “It makes it so much easier to identify patterns and students who need support.”

While district systems provided the foundation, school teams brought the creativity. Some schools tweaked lunch menus to feature favorite items on historically low-attendance days. Others scheduled celebrations or community-building activities—like yoga, games, or SEL sessions—on early dismissal days. “The idea was to make those days feel worthwhile, so students would want to be there. And it worked,” said Sue. “Students felt the benefit of being with others, even if the day was short. Relationships matter.”

But she also noted that systems and interventions alone aren’t enough—mindsets must shift. “The biggest surprise and challenge is getting everyone to believe that the problem and the solution belong to all of us, even though the school attendance team is doing the work of analyzing the data, everybody has to be part of the solution,” she said. The key to addressing this? Leadership that believes in the work and continues to shine a light on it.

The Results: Steady Progress and Stronger Systems

‍
Since renewing its attendance focus in 2021–22, Hamden has made consistent progress. “We’ve steadily been bringing our numbers down. We don’t have the final state report yet for this year, but it looks like we dropped a couple more percentage points,” said Sue.

For Hamden, the partnership has been invaluable. “It’s hard to quantify how helpful it’s been. EveryDay Labs has taken on so much that we couldn’t do ourselves,” said Sue, particularly noting the ease of use, accessibility of webinars and other resources, direct connections to families, and regular, one-on-one support from the EveryDay Labs team.

‍

Curious about how an EveryDay Labs partnership can help improve attendance in your district? Reach out today!