Every Student Present
Every Student Present is a public awareness campaign developed by New York State Council on Children and Families and is intended to help families, school leaders and communities understand the impact of multiple school absences on children’s learning, especially young students. The goals of the campaign are to promote awareness of chronic absence and to build capacity among schools, families, and communities to promote school attendance.
Chronic Absence Overview
Chronic absence merits careful attention and action since our ability to identity and support chronically absent students and their families has the potential to reduce the achievement gap, turn around under performing schools, and increase students’ readiness for college and careers. Chronic absence is one of the earliest indications we have that students are not on course.
This section presents an overview of chronic absence. It helps school leadership and community members share a common understanding of what chronic absence is and how it differs from other attendance concepts and measures.
What is Chronic Absence and Why is it Important?
Data
- Chronic absence is a measure of students who have missed 10% or more of the days in which they were enrolled in the school year.
- The chronic absence rate is the portion of students within a grade, district or subgroup (e.g., elementary, secondary level; race/ethnicity; gender; language proficiency; disability group, migrant status) that misses 10% or more of the days in which they were enrolled.
- Chronic absence needs to be addressed because our ability to identify and support chronically absent students and their families has the potential to help:
- reduce the achievement gap,
- turn around under performing schools, and
- increase students’ readiness for college and careers.
Research Tells Us
Considerable research supports the intuitive link between chronic absence and school outcomes. Those children who miss a large portion of the school year are less likely to meet many of the milestones used to determine school success. Furthermore, research findings indicate that the matter of chronic absence influences students at all educational levels.
Survey findings have shown that parents tend to think absences in lower grades have fewer detrimental consequences for their younger children but could gravely impact the school course of their older children. However, research results point to the fact that the outcomes for chronically absent students are significant at every educational level and the goal of Every Student Present is to help these parents understand good attendance is a habit to build in our children from the very start of their schooling. As a result of research, we have learned:
- Students who are chronically absent in preschool are five times more likely to be chronically absent in second grade;
- Low-cost, parent-focused strategies improve attendance of students in kindergarten through grade 5.
- Chronic absence in kindergarten was associated with lower academic performance in first grade, the impact is twice as great for students in low-income families;
- Students identified as academically ready at the beginning of kindergarten but who were chronically absent in kindergarten and first grade scored 60 points below students with good attendance on third grade reading tests;
- Compared to children with average attendance, chronically absent students gained 14 percent fewer literacy skills in kindergarten; in first grade they had 15 percent fewer literacy skills and 12 percent fewer math skills;
- Course performance in the ninth grade was the strongest predictor of student graduation and chronic absence was the strongest predictor of course performance;
- Fifty percent of students who miss two or more days of school in September miss a month or more of school for the school year; and
- Among students who graduate, those who missed ten or more school days during tenth grade had a 25 percentage point difference in their post-secondary enrollment rates.
Annual Daily Attendence
Annual daily attendance is a collective measure of student attendance. Collectively, most schools have an ADA rate of 95% or better, which sounds as though attendance is not a problem. However, this is looking at the overall average and does not reflect whether or not some students in our schools repeatedly miss a large portion of school.
Truancy
Chronic Absence
Chronic absence stands alone in its ability to identify specific children who are repeatedly missing school and considerable amounts of instruction. Students are considered chronically absent when they miss 10% of the days for which they are enrolled. The 10% is used since research has shown this is the tipping point for when detrimental consequences begin to occur. When we are able to identify the specific children who are missing large portions of school, we are able to direct resources more strategically and provide appropriate interventions that help them get to school and on track for learning.
How do we know who's chronically absent?
School superintendents and principals can access information about which students are chronically absent and the rate of chronic absence in their classrooms, schools and districts by accessing the Student Information Repository System (SIRS) (SIRS: 360 & 361)
Models Used
Across the country and within our state, models for reducing chronic absence have included those that are predominantly school-based or community-based.
School-based efforts are those where individual schools or districts organize staff, school resources and activities in ways that help reduce the portion of chronically absent students.
Community-based efforts tend to efforts organized by community coalitions that have a focus to reduce chronic absence as part of their mission. Campaign for Grade Level Reading communities are examples of this type of effort.
Each model brings with it a set of benefits and challenges that are described in this section.
School Based Model
With the school-based model, districts and/or schools assume responsibility for reducing chronic absence. The schools may or may not work with community members (e.g., non-profit organizations, human service agencies, businesses). An example of this is the New York City School District. The New York City Principals’ Guide, developed by The Children’s Aid Society, provides an overview of how this work can be done.
Many actions can be incorporated into schools’ ongoing responsibilities
- Review SIRS data to determine chronic absence rates within the district, schools, and classrooms.
- Establish attendance teams responsible for reducing chronic absence.
- Provide attendance teams access to attendance data and identify students who are chronically absent.
- Examine school policies and modify policies that contribute to absences unintentionally (e.g., 28 day seat time, suspension, pre-k attendance requirements).
- Train school staff so they collect attendance consistently across schools in the district, increasing the reliability of attendance data.
- Build a school culture of attendance and implement a prevention foundation.
- Use the Student Support Services/Pupil Personnel infrastructure to provide support to chronically absent students and their families.
Some actions not be part of school norms may require a bigger “lift”
- Requires “will” from school leadership to effectively modify the school climate to support a culture of attendance.
- The demand for student support services may exceed the school’s supply/budget.
- Schools will most likely restrict the campaign to the school boundaries since resources for a community-wide campaign are limited.
- Schools have access to confidential information about students but the underlying reasons for chronic absence may pertain to information not accessible to schools (e.g., family) and may be difficult to access.
Community Based Model
With the community model, community coalitions assume responsibility for reducing chronic absence and work with the school districts and/or schools in their communities to ensure this happens. An example of this type of coalition is the Campaign for Grade Level Reading, which has several coalitions across the state. In other instances, non-profit organizations interested in the educational success of children have assumed this responsibility.
Many benefits result from community coalitions’ broad reach
Coalitions have the unique advantage of being able to disseminate messages community-wide.
Coalitions can partner with schools to provide interventions. For example, a Community Coalition funded:
- staff development to promote the use of alternative strategies to address students’ behavioral challenges and reduce the use of suspensions
- a school-based attendance coordinator to make home visits, work with families and navigate the neighborhood to locate students not in school
- mediation counseling so families and school staff could meet to discuss reasons for chronic absence (especially helpful in severe cases)
- bus passes and grocery store gift cards for families whose children showed improved attendance
- sought a donation from a manufacturer and received washing machines and dryers for the school.
- The Local Department of Social Services (LDSS) use funds from their prevention budget to purchase ‘wrap around’ services.
- In one instance, laundry detergent was purchased for families whose children were not attending school because their clothes were not clean.
Schools linkages are tied to coalitions’ success
Coalition success is dependent on coalitions’ relationship with districts and/or schools since the student-level efforts needed to reduce chronic absence require school involvement (e.g., recognition and rewards for improved attendance).
For example, Community Coalitions:
- worked with local businesses to provide schools with items used as incentives (e.g., gift cards, event coupons); the incentives were given to students and parents for improved attendance.
- gave incentives to teachers who were willing to be a “buddy” to chronically absent students (e.g., greet student throughout the day). The program expanded considerably once schools could see the improvements and were willing to take a more active role for school-based activities.
Community Coalitions need to make a collective commitment to address community challenges that impact absences.
- For instance, what will it take for the community to improve youth employment opportunities so older students helping to support their families can get after school jobs?
Key Concepts
The actions needed for us to solve chronic absence are best achieved using a prevention-oriented tiered approach.
The actions require us to:
- Build awareness
- Use data to inform action
- Engage students and families and recognize their successes
- Intervene early and provide supports
Many schools already use a prevention approach to provide supports to students with academic or behavioral challenges.
The infrastructure used to address these challenges (e.g., Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports—PBIS) can also be used to tackle chronic absence.
However, the tiered approach for reducing chronic absence differs somewhat from what schools are doing now in that:
- Attendance becomes a more visible priority;
- Efforts to address attendance problems are more focused, deliberate and ongoing; and
- Attendance becomes a criterion (in addition to academics and behavior) for identifying children who need additional supports.
Engage and Recognize Successes to Improve Attendance
Key Concepts
- Visible priority: Attendance is a visible, ongoing priority within the school and throughout the community; school websites, newsletters and other communications with parents stress good attendance.
- Ongoing message: to parents and students is that good attendance is important, possible, expected, and fun!
- Part of the school culture: Interactions with students and parents about attendance are aligned with a positive school climate.
- Prevention-focused: Engagement efforts and recognition for improved attendance occur at all three prevention tiers (universal, at-risk, high-risk).
- Family-focused: Engagement and recognition activities include parents as well as students.
- Aligned with other school policies: All school policies complement and are consistent with the positive philosophy promoted through attendance policies (e.g., use alternative to suspensions, access to prekindergarten slots are not dependent on students’ attendance).
What Needs to be Done?
Engagement
Effective engagement is an “all-the-time” process that requires us to:
- constantly listen to students, parents and family members;
- build relationships; and
- find ways to collaborate and problem solve (i.e., listen and learn about the reasons for a family’s absences and identify mutually agreeable solutions).
Recognition
Focus recognition efforts on students who have improved their attendance rather than perfect attendance. Effective recognition efforts:
- are part of a comprehensive approach
- can be low-cost or free
- recognize families, as well as students; especially in lower grades where parents are instrumental in getting young students to school
How Does it Get Done?
How Does it Get Done?
Efforts to promote good attendance are particularly successful when an individual is designated by the principal to assume this responsibility.
The designee/attendance coordinator:
- works with other school staff to incorporate positive messages at all school events about the importance of attendance
- establishes the expectation of good attendance as part of the school climate. Messaging about good attendance is directed to all students and parents; it’s not limited to chronically absent students absent.
- is more effective if responsibilities only focus on building a positive culture for attendance. For example, this may result in a conflict of roles if the attendance officer serves as the attendance coordinator.
Help Families Understand Importance of Attendance in Early Grades...
- With the assistance of Ready Freddy, school staff, along with community volunteers, welcome kindergartners to their new school, highlighting to families and students that regular attendance is a key component to school success.
- Throughout the year, Freddy awards stickers to Pre-K students with good attendance
- Freddy greets students and parents in the Pre-K and kindergarten hallways
Consider Ways to Get Children to School Early...
Many school districts have expanded their school breakfast program using Community Eligibility provisions, which has been a means of getting students to school each day and on time. School breakfast has been shown to increase attendance and promote achievement.
Help Families and Students Transition to Middle and High School...
- Consider ways teachers, as well as parents, can help children deal with changes and adapt to school more easily.
- At student-parent orientation, invite both parents and students to participate in the Washing the Elephant activity so all are reminded of the impact absences have on learning.
- Engage new students:
- Encourage students to participate in extracurricular activities and after-school programming so they feel more engaged with the school.
- Have students assist younger students during the breakfast program.
- Intramural sports schedules have been adjusted in some districts — moved to the morning instead of after school — as a way to get students to school.
- Arrangements have been made with the local library so that older high school students can use PLATO and complete course requirements for graduation at a local public library; this reduces the stigma overage students may feel being with other younger students.
- Many school districts and community organizations nearby schools conduct or host quality after school programs that support students and their families. See how Hip Hop Therapy boosts attendance at a Bronx high school.
Throughout the Year...
- Use school events, like Back to School Night and Open House, to stress good attendance and make the connection between attendance with school success.
- Each month, enter the names of students with 95% attendance or improved attendance into a drawing for a prize.
- Congratulate students with improved attendance during morning announcements.
- Host friendly competitions and award classrooms with good attendance (e.g., Popsicles on the Playground; Traveling Trophy).
Early Supports and Interventions
Key Concepts
- Focus is on chronically absent students: Early supports and interventions are focused on students who are chronically absent or at risk of being so.
- SIRS is used to identify students: These students are identified using the New York State Education Department chronic absence reports available to school staff through SIRS.
- A data-guided approach is used: Early supports and interventions are guided, not driven, by the data.
What Needs to be Done?
Establish an Infrastructure of Early Supports for Chronically Absent Students...
A school infrastructure is needed to ensure attendance is monitored, chronically absent students are identified and supports are provided to them.
This infrastructure can build on what schools already have in place. For example, many schools use a prevention-oriented, tiered approach to identify students with academic or behavioral challenges (e.g., PBIS). This can be modified to include students with attendance challenges.
The poster below and other materials can be downloaded from this website. See Resource section.
The individual designated by the principal to promote a positive culture of attendance may also be responsible for coordinating regularly scheduled meetings (weekly or bi-weekly) in partnership with the principal. The purposes of these meetings are to:
- identify any students who are chronically absent and provide early interventions,
- review progress made by chronically absent students who are receiving supports (e.g., mentoring), and
- determine which practices being used are effective with your students and consider whether the practices should become part of the school-wide culture.
In addition to the principal, other attendance team members may include social workers, community liaisons, student support staff, school nurses, attendance teachers, and school-based mentors.
The NYC Principals’ Guide provides detailed information about how to implement attendance teams in your schools.
Note: The attendance team’s focus needs be on ongoing, positive engagement. Therefore, this team should not be responsible for any enforcement procedures.
Enhance Student Engagement with Mentors Who Personalize Supports...
Putting mentoring programs in place
The goals of mentoring are to:
(1) engage students through personal relationships with adults;
(2) identify reasons students are not attending school; and
(3) work with school staff who can link students and families to supports that help address reasons for poor attendance (e.g., health, transportation).
Students who are chronically absent are identified using the NYS Education Department SIRS reports and mentors are assigned to the students.
Typically, mentors are teachers, school aides, parent liaisons, guidance counselors, social workers and administrators.
- Mentors who are not school employees have confidentiality agreements; in some instances, they may be fingerprinted.
- Contact with families is left to school staff who have the authority to discuss absences; this may or may not be the responsibility of mentors.
One district began by asking teachers to assume responsibility for being a mentor to up to 5 students. The coordinator of the mentor program worked with a local coffee shop and was able to provide $10 gift cards to the teachers.
Mentors have a small group of students for whom they are responsible. It is the responsibility of the mentor to meet their students individually and in small groups. Mentor-to-student ratios commonly used:
- 8-15 students to 1 volunteer mentor
- 5 students to 1 teacher
Examples of mentor responsibilities include activities where mentors:
- meet and greet their students each day;
- call home when their students are absent to let parents and students know they are missed;
- host one-to-one and small group activities (e.g., meet to eat lunch together, gather to celebrate small attendance improvements);
- regularly offer positive encouragement;
- regularly meet and work with school administrators and other mentors to share successes and identify supports that could remedy reasons why students are absent.
The NYC Success Mentor Corps Guide provides detailed information about how to implement a mentor program in your schools.
Advisory: 22 Ways to Build Relationships for Educational Success
Help Students Develop Skills that Ease their Attendance Challenges...
- Programs such as yoga classes that help students develop coping skills so they are better able to participate in new situations that make them uncomfortable
- Conflict resolution training to promote students’ communication and resolution skills.
- Academic challenges can overwhelm students, making them reluctant to attend school. Response to Intervention (RtI) is the practice of providing high-quality instruction/intervention matched to student needs.
- Empowerment programs to help students deal with concerns about being ostracized by peers (e.g., young female “tweens” dealing with “mean girls”).
Advance Student Supports Through Staff Development...
- Listen to administrators talk about how their promotion of social-emotional learning reduces bullying, improves school climate and enhances student learning.
Restorative practices use a community process for supporting those in conflict. The restorative circle brings together the three main parties to a conflict – those who have acted, those directly impacted and the wider community – within an intentional systemic context, to dialogue as equals. Participants invite each other and attend voluntarily. The dialogue process used is shared openly with all participants, and guided by a community member. The process ends when actions have been found that bring mutual benefit.
- Curricula that promote social emotional learning (SEL) help improve the overall school climate as well as improve children’s overall healthy development and academic success. Dr. Mark Greenberg, a developer of PATHS, highlights the benefits of SEL.
- NEA Bullying Prevention strategies help create a safe environment that is more inclusive and engaging to students by involving all adults in the schools.
- Paraeducators’ role in bullying prevention
- Bus drivers’ role in bullying prevention
- Food service staff role in bullying prevention
Use a Community School Lens to Support Students and Families...
- CDC Managing Food Allergies in Schools and Early Care and Education Programs
- Strategies for Addressing Asthma in Schools xx
- Help Hub
- EPA A Guild to Implementing an Indoor Air Quality Program
- Addressing the Health-Related Causes of Chronic Absenteeism: A Toolkit for Action
Incorporate Resolution Supports...
Some students may continue to have attendance challenges even when supports are repeatedly provided. The goal of school staff is to maintain a positive approach regardless of the level of risk.
Alternatives to suspension ensure students do not miss instruction; these strategies can be especially useful for some older students who have academic challenges and may skip school or act out in class in an effort to be suspended, hoping to avoid school work.
- Instead of Suspension offers alternative strategies for effective school discipline.
- The US Department of Education believes teachers and students deserve school environments that are safe, supportive, and conducive to teaching and learning. Creating a supportive school climate—and decreasing suspensions and expulsions—requires close attention to the social, emotional, and behavioral needs of all students.
- Follow this issue on social media with #rethinkdiscipline
- Read the report, Rethinking School Discipline, by the New York State School Board Association
School-Family Mediation Counseling, like that provided by Community Dispute Resolution Centers across the state, can be used with students who are repeatedly chronically absent. In an effort to maintain a positive approach, an external mediator is invited to work with family members and school staff to handle conflict in a constructive manner and resolve a dispute by finding mutually acceptable solutions.
Related Research
The research studies presented here provide evidence of the link between attendance and school outcomes. The link is apparent at all educational levels.
- Allensworth, E.M. & Easton, J.Q. (2007). What matters for staying on-track and graduating in Chicago Public High Schools: A close look at course grades, failures, and attendance in the freshman year. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research.
- Applied Survey Research (2011). Attendance in early elementary grades: Associations with student characteristics, school readiness, and third grade outcomes. Watsonville, CA: Author.
- Balfanz, R. & Byrnes, V. (2012). The importance of being in school: A report on absenteeism in the nation’s public schools. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Center for Social Organization of Schools.
- Balfanz, R. & Byrnes, V. (2013). Meeting the challenge of combating chronic absenteeism: Impact of the NYC Mayor’s Interagency Task Force on Chronic Absenteeism and School Attendance and its implications for other cities. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins School of Education.
- Chang, H.N. & Romero, M. (2008). Present, engaged and accounted for: The critical importance of addressing chronic absence in early grades. New York: National Center for Children in Poverty.
- Connolly, F. & Olson, L.S. (2012). Early elementary performance and attendance in Baltimore City Schools’ prekindergarten and kindergarten. Baltimore, MD: Baltimore Education Research Consortium.
- Corrin, W., Sepanik, S., Rosen, R., & Shane, S. (2016). Addressing early warning indicators: Interim impact findings from the Investing in Innovation (i3) evaluation of Diplomas Now. New York: MDRC.
- Ehrlich, S.B., Gwynne, J.A., Pareja, A.S., & Allensworth, E.M. (2013). Preschool attendance in Chicago Public Schools: Relationships with learning outcomes and reasons for absences. Chicago: University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research.
- Olson, L.S. (2014). Why September matters: Improving student attendance. Baltimore, MD: Baltimore Education Research Consortium.
- Ready, D. D. (2010). Socioeconomic disadvantage, school attendance, and early cognitive development: The differential effects of school exposure. Sociology of Education, 83: 271-286.
- Youth Justice Board (2013). From absent to present: Reducing teen chronic absenteeism in New York City. New York, NY: Author.
ABOUT THE CAMPAIGN
Toolkit
This toolkit describes how to use Every Student Present resources to build a culture of attendance throughout the community and increase parents’ awareness about the importance of school attendance.
Activities
These activities demonstrate the impact of poor school attendance. They can be used with parents, faculty and others.
Website Badge
This badge can be inserted on your website and directs visitors to CCF’s Every Student Present webpage.
PSA
This 15 second Public Service Announcement directed to parents and families can be broadcast on television or shared in the community as an audio file.
Flyers
These activities demonstrate the impact of poor school attendance. They can be used with parents, faculty and others.
Letters
Sample Letter & Script
Partner Resources
- Useful data reports and guide books from our partners can help school administrators in promoting school attendance.
NYC Department of Education and Children's Aid Society
As part of its original Truancy Taskforce, the New York City Department of Education partnered with the Children’s Aid Society to reduce chronic absence. Two guidebooks were developed to help principals establish a school infrastructure to reduce chronic absence and to implement mentoring programs in their schools.
NYS Education Department
The New York State Education Department has developed chronic absence data reports for all school districts. The reports allow school leadership the ability to easily monitor chronic absence at the district, school and classroom level as well as across groups and individual students (see memo).
Social and Emotional Development
For Parents
Ways to help your child attend school every day.
Regular attendance is essential to close the achievement gap, improve school performance, and set students on a path to success in college and careers. This guide will help you understand the importance of addressing chronic absence, provide strategies for boosting your child’s confidence, and offer resources to support your child’s academic and emotional well-being. By working together, we can help ensure your child attends school regularly and thrives in their education.
Building Confidence
Helping children gain confidence and build coping skills
Playlist
Stay On Track
Supporting Children's Learning
Children who are struggling with schoolwork can become frustrated and look for ways to avoid going to school. Our goal is to provide them with the support they need so they feel good about learning and good about themselves. Parents and teachers need to work together to help children succeed in school and feel connected.
Image Source: https://www.attendanceworks.org
Playlist
Stay Healthy
Effects of health on school attendance
There are times when children need to miss school due to typical childhood illnesses. However, when many health issues are managed, we can reduce the amount of time children are out of school. Learn how to reduce the amount of time your children miss school due to health concerns.
Playlist
Confront Bullying
Protect Your Child From Bullies
Children may want to stay home from school if they are being bothered by bullies. This section provides information on how you can learn if children are being upset and what you can do to support them.
