Similar to many school districts across the nation, Consolidated High School District 230 in Illinois has had a significant increase in chronic absence since the Covid-19 pandemic. District 230’s three high schools saw their chronic absence rate peak at 21% in the 2022-23 school year, but it has steadily decreased to 19.1% in 2024-25. We […]

This is a Q&A with Saleem Qazi, CEO and founder of RaaWee K12 Solutions, a company specializing in web-based solutions for chronic absence and truancy prevention in public schools. Attendance Works: Saleem, could you share how you first became aware of the issue of chronic absence? Saleem: Absolutely. I met Hedy at a conference in […]

The second webinar in the 2025 Attendance Awareness Campaign series, “Health, Well-being and Safety Are Essential to Showing Up”, took place May 14! Find the recording and materials here. Kwesi Rollins, chief program officer at the Institute for Educational Leadership and Hedy Chang, executive director of Attendance Works, opened the session by underscoring this year’s […]

The 2025 Attendance Awareness Campaign launched April 2 with our first webinar which explored how school teams can help educators build meaningful relationships with students and families, a foundational strategy for reducing chronic absence. Find the recording. “Teams Make All the Difference for Improving Attendance,” hosted by Attendance Works and the Institute for Educational Leadership, […]

Attendance Works is deeply grateful to our 2024 Attendance Awareness Campaign corporate sponsors: ● Scholastic ● School Technology Associates ● RaaWee K12 Solutions ● Kaiser Permanente Thriving Schools Their generous support has been instrumental in supporting our ability to provide free resources to schools, districts and states nationwide through the Attendance Awareness Campaign. Regular school […]

This is a guest blog post by Amanda Alexander, Chief Academic Officer, Scholastic Education For more than 100 years, Scholastic has remained steadfast in its commitment to helping children make sense of the world and their unique place in it through rich literature. We strive to ensure all children have equitable access to authentic and engaging stories […]

We were delighted to celebrate the annual Attendance Awareness Campaign with you. This year’s theme, Be Present, Be Powerful! serves as a reminder of the connection between school attendance and achieving our hopes and dreams. The theme highlights the role that schools play in promoting student well-being, personal development and achievement. Be Present, Be Powerful! […]

This is a guest blog post by Dan Horel, president of School Technology Associates. I’m Dan Hoerl, president of School Technology Associates, and a proud corporate sponsor of the Attendance Awareness Campaign, a project led by Attendance Works. I started working in the education market in 1983 selling robotic training solutions and in 2011, I […]

The fourth and final webinar of the 2024 Attendance Awareness Campaign, “Leadership for Sustainability: Superintendents Making a Difference,” (September 25, 2024), heard from local and state superintendents who are leading efforts to reduce absenteeism and engage students and families in school. The webinar also explored a new Ad Council survey on family attitudes towards attendance […]

The third webinar of the 2024 Attendance Awareness Campaign, “Creating a Culture of Belonging and Engagement: Principals In Action,” held on August 7, 2024, focused on engagement approaches designed to improve attendance for K-12 students. Kwesi Rollins, Vice President for Leadership and Engagement at the Institute for Educational Leadership started off the webinar noting the […]