Student attendance is often reflective of the needs of the student and family population. The problem is that more high needs school districts, have greater rates of absenteeism, which has greater effects on the schools funding, further crippling the district’s ability to address its students’ needs. District staff, who are typically plenty busy already, often do not hold the time or training to properly track down these students. As a solution, Districts are opting to outsource the process of tracking down these students, not only to locate them but to assess the barriers to regular attendance. Click the link to read all about this innovative solution!
“They were spending a large amount of time just doing clerical work that didn’t allow them to actually do what needed to be done,” said Ian Fish, who oversees attendance as the district’s assistant director of student services.
So, at the beginning of the 2022–23 school year, the district hired an outside firm called SchoolStatus to track attendance data and communicate with parents via texts, emails and postcards in multiple languages. Fish said it has freed up his staff to make phone calls or home visits to better understand the reasons behind the absences, and offer help such as counseling or connecting families to social services.
