Improving attendance and reducing chronic absence is not rocket science, but it does take commitment, collaboration and tailored approaches to the particular challenges and strengths of each school community. Across the nation, schools, communities and advocates have successfully taken steps to ensure children are attending school more regularly with:
Systemic Reform:
- Baltimore shut down its most troubled middle schools and created, instead, kindergarten-to-eighth grade or sixth-to-12th grade campuses that could serve older students.
Tailored Programmatic Responses:
- A New York City school found that Muslim parents were keeping their children home during Ramadan, lest they break their fast in the school cafeteria. The school set up a lounge for the children and hired a Muslim man to monitor them at lunch time.
- Providence, R.I., teachers found that parents working the overnight shift were falling asleep before bringing their children in. The school opened an early care and breakfast program so parents could drop off children before going to sleep.
Personalized Outreach:
- A Minneapolis, Minn. program (Check and Connect) uses school absences and tardies as signals that a child or a family needs support. Students are assigned to monitors or mentors, who work with the students, parents and teachers to support participation and engagement in school.
- Savannah, Ga., schools send a social worker for a home visit after a child is absent for five days. After 10 days, the police and other agencies get involved.
In communities where chronic absence is widespread, reducing chronic absence may require a comprehensive solution involving systemic reforms, programmatic responses and personalized outreach. Examples of what has worked on the ground appear in this section. For examples of systemic reform at the state or federal level, see the policy section. If you have an effective solution that has led to a decline in chronic absence, contact us here.