Partner Spotlight: Tempe Elementary School District, Arizona

Background: 

Located in the heart of Arizona, Tempe Elementary Schools has been serving its community for over 150 years. The district supports a diverse population of more than 10,000 students across preschool through 8th grade. In recent years, like many districts nationwide, Tempe faced challenges with rising chronic absenteeism. Leading the district’s efforts to address this issue is Cindy Denton, Chief Technology, Innovation and Imagination Officer. A passionate and hands-on leader, Cindy has played a key role in driving positive change and strengthening attendance supports across the district.

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The Challenge: No Clear Systems or Structures

Before partnering with EveryDay Labs, Tempe Elementary Schools lacked formal attendance teams or systems, making district-wide efforts difficult to coordinate. Staff responsible for attendance lacked clear roles, and there was no consistent process for identifying or supporting chronically absent students. Without a streamlined approach, the district struggled to take meaningful, unified action to address absenteeism.

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The Solution: Strong Leadership, Systemic Change, and Personalized Supports

Tempe Elementary Schools’ attendance transformation began in the 2023-24 school year with its partnership with EveryDay Labs. One of the first major shifts was the formation of dedicated attendance teams across school sites. Backed by strong leadership and support from the superintendent, Chief Technology, Innovation and Imagination Officer, Cindy Denton led the charge. Attendance became a district-wide priority, with Cindy at the helm of professional learning sessions designed to build shared ownership and deep understanding of effective attendance practices. These sessions, led in partnership with EveryDay Labs, brought school staff together regularly to learn, ask questions, and collaborate around best practices.

A key part of this work was the adoption of the EveryDay Labs Attendance MTSS Platform, which gave school teams access to nightly-updated, actionable data. With built-in tools for intervention coordination and case management, staff could easily identify trends, track progress, and deliver targeted support to students. What set Tempe apart was how deeply and consistently the platform was used. Cindy ensured that every professional learning session included time for live platform demos and hands-on support. As a result, staff became highly proficient in using the platform and engaged with it frequently, which proved to be a key factor in the success of their attendance efforts.

EveryDay Labs also helped strengthen family-school partnerships through personalized, supportive communication. In the 2023-24 school year, over 82,000 proactive text nudges and more than 12,000 mailings were sent to families of chronically absent and at-risk students. These communications provided families with clear, easy-to-understand information about their child’s attendance, along with connections to resources when needed. EveryDay Labs was able to further support these connections to vital resources through their 24/7 Family Support Bot and the live Family Support Team, providing an additional touchpoint for family engagement and support.

In addition to system-level changes, Tempe Elementary Director of Wraparound Services coordinated numerous community partnerships to address root causes of absenteeism. This, coupled with the work done by Brenda Vargas, Director of Student and Community Engagement, provided an innovative, community-driven solution that demonstrated how far the district was willing to go to support students.

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The Results: Big Wins for Students and Families

Tempe’s attendance work is making a clear impact. In the 2023-24 school year, 60% of students who received EveryDay Labs Chronic Absence Nudges improved their attendance.

That progress continued to grow in 2024-25! Of the students who received the mail & text intervention: 

• 37% of chronically absent students moved to non-chronically absent status
• 77% of at-risk students did not become chronically absent
• 58% of students improved their attendance rate 

Thanks to strong leadership and a district-wide commitment, more students are in class, learning, and thriving.

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

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