Amid increasing rates of absenteeism, leaders and educators turn to each other to share ideas and strategies.

  • Educators respond to the prompt, “What are your school’s solutions for chronic absenteeism & lateness?” (Elementary Educator in New York)
    • “My former school had a parent support specialist who talked to families constantly about the need for consistent attendance. She also told them that for a short medical appointment, kids should be attending the rest of the day.” —Educator in New Jersey
    • “We are tracking percentages by classroom with a reward at the end of the month but I’m not a fan because [of things like] illness [and] students being 8 and having no control on getting themselves to school.” —Elementary Teacher in Wisconsin
    • “In CA: Truancy meetings with families, if it continues, they get SARB’d (Student Attendance Review Board). If it’s unresolved, court, juvie, ward of the state…” —Educator in California
    • “Our school district has hired trained social workers to support the families and identify barriers. Has had a massive impact! Parents do well when they can too, they often need help maneuvering systems (mental health, funding, etc).” —Educator
  • “Schools that are seeing improvement in attendance: 1. What do you do in addition to the usual stuff of home visits, phone calls, letters etc? 2. What is behavior like during unstructured time?” —Educator
    • “Use of praise – positive letters where an improvement seen, & merits awarded monthly automatically for 100% attendance that month. Sometimes I call home to recognize resilience or attendance in difficult circumstances. Work with outside agencies where there may be emotionally based school avoidance.” —History Teacher
    • “It’s frustrating to see so many replies about systems that don’t focus on the child’s needs. Honest chats about sensory issues and anxiety triggers like uniforms, lessons, corridors, bullies, where to go during down time, safe adults, would do more to remove the source of school trauma and anxiety.” —Math Teacher
  • “Chronic absenteeism is a major challenge in schools, often leading to student academic struggles. Yet, teachers are frequently blamed for the outcomes. It’s time to recognize that schools and teachers can’t be thought of as the sole solution to all of our kids’ challenges.” —Educator in Michigan
    • “I am tired of doing what I am supposed to do but it’s my fault the kids don’t care. My evaluation was the best I had ever had for my part last year but because the kids didn’t perform, now I am on warning.” —Educator in New Jersey
    • “I enter attendance daily, but our electronic system doesn’t notify admin of frequent absences automatically, so I am to look through attendance and notify them of frequent absences. It’s exhausting with an automatic attendance system.” —Teacher in Minnesota
    • “Blaming teachers for chronic absenteeism is like blaming pilots for air traffic congestion. The solutions have to match the scale of the problem because teachers, like pilots, can only do so much within a system they didn’t design and can’t really modify. When a problem reaches system scale, it requires  system solutions.” —High School Principal
    • “One big one not talked about is at the high school level. The first 3 weeks of each semester I lose athletes to tournaments. Ex: in the fall I’ll have volleyball kids miss at least 6-8 days in 2 1/2 weeks. It’s hard for them to catch up when they miss the foundation of the class.” —High School Teacher in Texas