Reilly managed to slash his power absenteeism charge in half to 25 p.c this previous 2024-25 yr. That’s nonetheless excessive. One in 4 college students missed greater than 18 days of faculty a yr. However, it’s higher.
He started by figuring out 150 children who had been simply over the edge for power absenteeism, those that missed between 18 and 35 days, hoping that these children can be simpler to lure again to high school than those that had been extra disengaged. Reilly and a bunch of directors and steering counselors every took 10 to fifteen college students and confirmed their households how a lot college they’d missed and the way low their grades had been. His group requested, “What do you want to ensure that your child to be coming to high school?’”
The 2 most typical replies: transportation and meals.
Many college students lived solely a mile away, too shut to high school to qualify for bus service. But the stroll deterred many, particularly if it was raining or snowing. Yellow buses typically handed these youngsters’s properties as they had been transporting youngsters who lived farther out, and Reilly satisfied the district so as to add stops for these chronically absent youngsters.
Ninety p.c of his college students come from households who’re poor sufficient to qualify for the federal free or reduced-price lunch program and 80 p.c are Hispanic. Though many youngsters had been fed breakfast and lunch at college, their households admitted that their children would get so hungry over the weekend that they didn’t need to get up and are available to high school on Mondays. Reilly partnered with a meals pantry and despatched baggage of meat and pasta dwelling with college students on Fridays.
Particular person consideration additionally helped. In the beginning of every college day, Reilly and his group verify in with their assigned college students. Youngsters who present up get 5 “inexperienced bucks” to spend on snacks and prizes. Directors name the properties of those that didn’t come to high school. “If they didn’t reply the cellphone, we’d make a house go to,” mentioned Reilly.
Probably the most dramatic overhaul was scheduling. Reilly scrapped particular person schedules for college students and assigned 4 lecturers to each 104 college students. The youngsters now transfer in pods of 26 that take all their courses collectively, rotating by means of the identical 4 lecturers all through the day. The school rooms are proper close to one another, making a smaller group throughout the college.
“It’s all about relationship constructing,” mentioned Reilly. When college students stay up for seeing their classmates and lecturers, he mentioned, they’re extra motivated to return to high school.
Researchers say fostering relationships is efficient. Hedy Chang, government director of Attendance Works, a nonprofit group that advises faculties on how one can enhance attendance charges, mentioned it’s nonetheless a battle to influence college leaders (and faculty board members) that making college a extra welcoming place is extra productive than punishing children and households for skipping college.
Reilly mentioned his college now posts the bottom scholar and trainer power absenteeism charges in Windfall. And he mentioned his college is the very best performing center college within the metropolis and among the many highest statewide in studying.
New York Metropolis: Catching the butterflies
A cluster of New York Metropolis excessive faculties are taking a extra data-driven strategy, guided by New Visions, a consulting group that helps 71 metropolis excessive faculties.
After some experimentation, New Visions workers noticed sturdy enchancment in attendance in a single subgroup of scholars who had been on the cusp of lacking 10 p.c of faculty days, however had not but crossed the power absenteeism threshold. These are college students who may miss a day or two each week or each different week however had been comparatively engaged at college. Jonathan Inexperienced, a New Visions college enchancment coach who’s spearheading this effort, calls them “butterflies.” “They might flutter out and in each week,” he mentioned.
Inexperienced instructed that somebody at college meet weekly with these butterflies and present them their attendance knowledge, set targets for the approaching week and clarify how their attendance was main to raised grades. The intervention took two to 5 minutes. “There have been marked adjustments in attendance,” mentioned Inexperienced.
New Visions constructed an internet site the place college directors might print out two-page paperwork for every scholar so the information, together with month-to-month attendance and tardiness, appeared in an easy-to-digest format. The short conferences befell for eight to 10 weeks throughout the last grading interval for the semester. “That’s when there’s probably the most alternative to show these probably failing grades into passing grades,” mentioned Inexperienced. “We had been discovering these candy spots throughout the college calendar to do that very excessive useful resource, high-energy intensive weekly check-in. It’s not one thing that anybody can simply scale throughout a faculty.”
Employees had to determine the bell schedule for every little one and intercept them between courses. One succeeded in holding their complete caseload of scholars beneath the power absenteeism threshold. Not everybody thought it was a good suggestion: Some college directors questioned why a lot effort ought to go into college students who weren’t but chronically absent quite than college students in higher hassle.
The dramatic outcomes assist reply that query. Amongst faculties within the Bronx that volunteered to take part within the butterfly intervention, power absenteeism charges dropped 15 proportion factors from 47 p.c in 2021 to 32 p.c in 2025, nonetheless excessive. However different Bronx excessive faculties within the New Visions community that didn’t do that butterfly intervention nonetheless had a power absenteeism charge of 46 p.c.
Inexperienced mentioned this answer wouldn’t work for different excessive schoolers. Some have hassle organizing their examine time, he mentioned, and wish extra intensive assist from lecturers. “Two- to five-minute check-ins aren’t going to assist them,” mentioned Inexperienced.
Indianapolis: Biscuits and gravy
The chief of an Indiana constitution college instructed me he used a system of rewards and punishments that diminished the power absenteeism charge amongst his kindergarten by means of eighth graders from 64 p.c in 2021-22 to 10 p.c in 2024-25.
Jordan Habayeb, the chief working officer of Adelante Faculties, mentioned he used federal funds for the college breakfast and lunch program to create a made-from-scratch restaurant-style cafeteria. “Enjoyable reality: On selfmade biscuit and gravy days, we noticed the bottom charges of tardies,” he mentioned.
Researchers suggest avoiding punishment as a result of it doesn’t convey college students again to high school. However Habayeb mentioned he adheres strictly to state regulation that requires faculties to report 10 absences to the state Division of Little one Providers and to file a report with the county prosecutor. Habayeb instructed me his college accounted for a fifth of truancy referrals to the county prosecutor.
The college created an automatic warning system after 5 absences quite than ready for the important 10-day loss. And Habayeb mentioned he dispatched the security and attendance officer in a van to have “actual conversations with households quite than being buried in paperwork.” In the meantime, college students who did present up acquired a relentless stream of rewards, from locker decorations to T-shirts.
Mum or dad schooling was additionally vital. Throughout necessary household orientations, the college illustrated how common attendance issues for even younger youngsters. “We shared what a toddler may miss throughout a three-day stretch in a unit on ‘Charlotte’s Net’ — displaying how simply a scholar might go away with a very completely different understanding of the e-book,” mentioned Habayeb. “This helped shift views and introduced urgency to the problem.”
Kansas Metropolis: Sweet and notes
College leaders in Kansas Metropolis, Kansas, shared some ideas which have labored for them throughout a webinar earlier this month hosted by Attendance Works. One elementary college diminished its power absenteeism from 55 p.c in 2021 to 38 p.c in 2024 by assigning all 300 college students to an grownup within the constructing, encouraging them to construct an “genuine” relationship. Academics got an inventory of concepts however had been free to do what appeared pure. One trainer left sweet and notes on their assigned college students’ desks. A preschooler proudly pasted his be aware, which mentioned he was a “genius,” on the entrance door of his home. “The grins children have on their faces are wonderful,” mentioned Zaneta Boles, the principal of Silver Metropolis Elementary College.
When college students do miss college, Boles mentioned educators attempt to take a “non-blaming strategy” in order that households usually tend to expose what’s going on. That helps the college refer them to different group companies for help.
Albuquerque: A shining instance regroups
Alamosa Elementary College in Albuquerque, New Mexico, was as soon as a shining instance of a faculty that persuaded extra households to ship their children to class. Power absenteeism fell as little as 1 in 4 college students in 2018, when The Hechinger Report wrote in regards to the college.
However Alamosa has not been immune from the surge of absenteeism that has plagued faculties across the nation. Power absenteeism spiked to 64 p.c of scholars throughout the 2021-22 college yr, when Covid variants had been nonetheless circulating. And it remained shockingly excessive with 38 p.c of scholars lacking greater than 10 p.c of the 2024-25 college yr — precisely matching the 50 p.c improve in power absenteeism throughout the nation since 2019.
“We had been on a roll. Then life occurred,” mentioned Daphne Strader, Albuquerque Public Faculties’ director of coordinated college well being, who works to cut back absenteeism.
Strader mentioned Alamosa and different Albuquerque faculties have made some profitable adjustments to how they’re tackling the issue. However the quantity of absenteeism stays overwhelming. “There’s so many children who’ve wants,” Starder mentioned. “We want extra workers on board.”
Strader mentioned attendance interventions had been “too siloed” they usually’re focusing extra on the “entire little one.” She’s encouraging faculties to combine attendance efforts with different initiatives to spice up educational achievement and enhance scholar habits. “College students are hungry, they’re dysregulated, they don’t have grit,” mentioned Strader, and all of those points are contributing to absenteeism. However she additionally concedes that some college students have extra extreme wants, and it’s unclear who within the system can deal with them.
Her largest recommendation for faculties is to give attention to relationships. “Relationships drive every little thing,” mentioned Strader. “One of many main penalties of the pandemic was the isolation. If I really feel a way of belonging, I’m extra prone to come to high school.”
