Fighting Chronic Absenteeism at Tubman Elementary: Strategies and Incentives

1. Fighting Chronic Absenteeism Tubman’s Attendance Team Presented by Jer’Nae Dickens, & Jeseka Holloway; School Counselor at Tubman elementary School

2. Defining CHRONICALLY Absent Students • Defined as- “missing 10 percent or more of a school year -- approximately 18 days a year, or just two days every month. And across the nation, 5 to 7.5 million students are chronically absent” • At TUBMAN, we chose to define these students through the previous years attendance data as students who have missed 15 or more days of school in the 2016/2017 school year • HOW? • Using Aspen, we created this list by searching the students who fell under this criteria • OUR target students (Hotlist) = 80 students (some families) for the current 2017/2018 school year

3. OUR GOALS for Hotlist students • Students to improve their attendance by 50 percent. • Students to be at school everyday to learn, grow, and develop into successful citizens. • To understand why they are missing so many days and find out how to support the family through: • Preventative • Continual • Supportive

4. Hotlist

5. Hotlist- ISA

6. Incentives • Along with emphasizing to students and parents the importance of being at school everyday for their educational success. We also let families on our “hotlist” know the incentives available if they attend everyday. • Weekly- Each week the attendance team will run a report to identify student on the “hotlist” who have been in school everyday that week. Those with perfect attendance receive a sticker and are thanked. • Monthly- At the end of each month the attendance team will run a report to identify students on the “hotlist” who have perfect attendance for the entire month. These students will get to participate in a special activity designed for them by the attendance team. (Ex. Board Game fun, Harvest Festival, Dance party, Field Trip,Zoo)

7. Creating a Chronically Absent list on Aspen. • Directions for creating a ‘hotlist’, a snapshot and running attendance reports weekly/monthly. • 1: Create a list on Aspen for only your Chronically Absent Students. “Hotlist” • On Aspen- Click Student Tab • Select each student identified for your “hotlist” • Show selected under options tab (make sure all students are selected) • 2: Create a Snap Shot for “Hotlist” • Under Student Tab- Select Options • Snapshot-New-Name it/Create • 3: Run “hotlist” report to identify any absences of students on the list. • Select Reports-Principal Attendance • Dates-Students to include select Snapshots • Search Value-Type name of the list=0 • Click Unexcused

8. Preventative (First month of school) • Everyone on the attendance team is given a list of Chronically absent students based on caseloads to start building arelationship with the family through phone calls home and/or conversations with their family about the importance of attendance. • The attendance team: School counselors, and social workers • Regular check in’s with (hotlist) students to ask them what kept them from school and offer support. • Letter’s are sent out to families on the list in during the first week of school informing them they are on our attendance hotlist this year. • We share the reason why they were selected, the goals, why it is important to us as well as their child. • A table was set up for back to school night with attendance information (An opportunity to locate and connect with families on the list)

9. Continual Support for each Student • Weekly/Monthly Attendance incentives for all students on the hotlist. • Each attendance team member provides continual support and relationship building techniques with each child on their “Hotlist” • Overall- a caring and concerned relationship is being established with each child who was on the Hotlist • Students KNOW we want them at school; and that we care they are in school

10. What do OUR check-ins look like? • Every Friday we run a report of the ‘hotlist’ on Aspen to identify they students who have attended everyday that week • Our school’s Behavior Tech then goes around to each class giving stickers to student's who are on the list for that week. • Students are asked to thank the adult who helped them get to school • Students who did not have perfect attendance are asked about the reasons for their absence • Phone calls home are (sometimes) made based on circumstance • The attendance team will also do periodic Check-in’s with students.