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 importance of school attendance. He emphasized building trust with students and families to promote a sense of belonging, supporting the health and well-being of students and staff, and using a collaborative approach, based on data, for developing solutions.
Hedy Chang, Executive Director of Attendance Works, talked about how to make schools welcoming and supportive. She explained the difference between average daily attendance and chronic absence, which is when a student misses 10% or more of school days for any reason. Chang said schools need to focus on understanding why students are missing school and work with families to solve these problems.
John Dixon, Assistant Principal at Glenfair Elementary School in Oregon, focused on finding out what each student and family needs to help them stay engaged in learning. Dixon said his school has many challenges: a high number of students who move in and out, many different languages spoken, and families struggling economically. To improve attendance, the school reaches out individually to families to understand their specific problems and provide support. It’s important to know and address the unique challenges each family faces and help them with the resources they need, he said.
Kerri L. Reed, Principal at Grand Rapids Montessori Academy in Michigan, noted that by working with Attendance Works, her school has managed to lower chronic absenteeism from 34.1% to 13.3% by focusing on helping families and building community partnerships. Reed said it’s often more important to support the families to make sure kids get to school. At the academy, with grades pre-K through 6th, students have the same teacher for three years, which helps build strong relationships with kids and their families.
Monica Murray, Principal at John Marshall High School in Virginia, said that before the pandemic, the school had high rates of chronic absence, but these rates have gone down steadily. When she started at the school six years ago, about 33% of students were chronically absent. Despite challenges from the pandemic, the school has reduced that rate to 22%.
Building strong relationships with students and families through the flexibility of “district hubs” helped communities focus on attendance, Murray said. A “district hub” is a district wide effort to support families with kids across all grade-levels. The hub engages a student’s family and siblings to provide comprehensive support to improve attendance and student success. Murray noted that this approach has been key to making progress.
Register today for Attendance Awareness Campaign webinars #4!
● Leadership for Sustainability: Superintendents Making a Difference
Wednesday, September 25, 2024: 12-1:30 pm PT / 3-4:30 pm ET. Register!
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