Reach out to the local media near the start of the school year, or respond to a reporter’s calls and suggest articles on school attendance and what your organization or community is doing to reduce absenteeism.
Op-eds and blogs. Compose a commentary stressing the importance of attendance and the role a school or community is playing to reduce absenteeism, especially given the challenges of the Covid 19 pandemic. If you can’t sell it as an op-ed piece, shorten it and offer it as a guest blog or a letter to the editor. Remember TV and radio stations allow on- air commentaries.
- Template op-eds. (forthcoming)
Social Media. Post 30 tweets and Facebook entries about attendance data — one for every day in September. Use our hashtag: #schooleveryday and we’ll retweet.
Public Service Announcements. We expect national partners to develop PSAs that will run on broadcast networks, but communities can develop their own announcements cheaply and easily.
- Sample PSA from Pleasanton Unified School District
- Sample PSA from Waterbury Arts Magnet School
- Instruction sheet on how to do radio PSAs
- Instruction sheet on how to do TV PSAs
- PSA scripts
Public Television. Local stations are often willing to partner with community initiatives. Contact your station and ask for support.
Webinars. The Attendance Awareness Campaign is hosting four webinars this year to prepare schools and communities. Our 2021 theme “Rebound With Attendance!” recognizes that students are more likely to attend school if they feel safe, connected, supported and are engaged. It also emphasizes how monitoring chronic absence provides clear information to guide planning for Covid-19 recovery Join all four, on April 14, May 26, August 4 and September 29. To register for a webinar, and to access the recordings and presentation slides, click here