If you’re looking for good examples of how communities are reducing chronic absence, check out the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading’s Bright Spots page. The Campaign, an Attendance Awareness Month partner that works with more than 150 communities nationwide, consider reducing chronic absence key to its goal of increasing the number of low-income children who read proficiently by the end of third grade.
The Campaign identified the following Bright Spots:
- The Arkansas Campaign for Grade-Level Reading is working with school districts across the state to reduce chronic absence and develop a model attendance policy. The work will include common materials and PSAs for Attendance Awareness Month.
- Vernon, Connecticut The school district developed a plan to improve attendance at all seven of its schools, serving 3,500 students. The data driven strategies have reduced chronic absence, especially in kindergarten and the elementary grades.
- Kent County, Michigan uses Kent School Services Network, a community school initiative that places providers such as community school coordinators and behavioral health clinicians in the county’s highest-poverty schools to decrease chronic absenteeism and help students and their families succeed.
- Providence, Rhode Island schools enlist City Year volunteers to work one-on-one with students who have a history of chronic absence to set goals and make a plan to boost their attendance.