Best Practices for Improving Attendance
Watch our collection of on our YouTube playlist.
Upcoming Learning Opportunities
On this page, you'll find best practices to help you in your attendance improvement work! Addressing attendance is most successful when using a multi-tiered approach. This integrated system connects all of the academic and non-academic interventions, supports, and services available in schools and communities to support instruction and eliminate barriers to learning and teaching. Visit the Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) webpage for more information.
- Data and Teaming
Assess your School's Attendance Systems
- Use this brief self-assessment with your school team to assess your progress towards an attendance system and use the results to set your goals.
- Attendance Team Assessment Template: Use this brief self-assessment with your school team to assess your school's overall progress towards addressing attendance comprehensively and use the results to set your goals
Establish or Identify your Team
- It takes a team to help organize a multi-tiered strategy that includes prevention and early intervention to reduce chronic absence; teams should begin with tier 1 efforts.
- Watch ""
- Use this Attendance Teaming Routines Checklist to get and keep your tier 1 team on track.
- Tier 1 Attendance Team Meeting Agenda Template
- Tier 1 Attendance Planning: September Kickoff supports schools in launching the year strong by guiding summer and early fall strategies—like welcome messaging, family engagement, and positive school culture.
Start with your Data
- You can explore your history of regular attendance with your team by looking up your school’s regular attendance data on the Consider watching the following videos on attendance data:
- Examples of Tiered Data
- Tier 1 Attendance Data - Universal Patterns for Prevention (examples: Monday - Friday, Periods 1-6, holiday dips). Find more details about Tier 1 Attendance & Engagement Data here.
- Tier 2 Attendance Data?- By Barrier (examples: transportation, experiencing homelessness or foster care system)?
- Tier 3 Attendance Data?- Top 5% of students who are missing or severely chronically absent.??
- While quantitative data reveals attendance patterns, empathy interviews provide qualitative data to uncover the personal reasons behind absences—helping identify common barriers and inform targeted interventions.
- – Learn how to create a safe, respectful space for open dialogue.
- – A guide to planning and conducting effective interviews.
- Empathy Interview Mapping (worksheet) – Organize and analyze what you learn to inform your next steps.
Tools for Small Tests of Improvement
Small tests of change are quick, targeted trials that let schools pilot attendance strategies in a single classroom or grade to see what works before scaling up.
- - Explore how to measure and monitor metrics on chronic absenteeism and evaluate attendance interventions.
- PDSA Template - Test and refine strategies that improve attendance through continuous, data-driven improvement.
- Tier 1 All Students: Building a Culture of Attendance
Tier 1 All Students:
This includes school-wide universal practices aimed at promoting a positive attendance culture for all students.
Building a Culture of Attendance
A culture of attendance is when a school universally communicates to families and students about the importance of attendance, why we want students to attend, how they will benefit when they attend, and the support they will receive when they experience barriers to attending.??
Through continued strength-based communication and resources the below resources provide minimal lift, collectively they will start to build a foundation towards strong attendance and engagement.
- 海角社区's Building a Culture of Attendance resource - low-lift tips to start the year.
- Find more Attendance Awareness Materials?here.
Taking daily attendance is vital for multiple reasons. It supports student safety by informing parents if their child’s where they are expected to be. Accurate attendance data helps schools identify patterns that can lead to attendance improvement. It also allows schools to support students and families who may need additional resources.
- - Lincoln Nugent, a teacher at Selah High School, created a humorous video for staff addressing the challenges and misconceptions surrounding the reliability of Tier 1 Attendance Data.
Tracking Daily Attendance
Tracking daily attendance fosters accountability, highlights potential challenges, and links consistent attendance to academic success. It helps students build engagement habits and empowers parents to monitor and support their child’s progress.
- Strive for Five Attendance Tracker (Grandview): This tool helps parents monitor their child’s daily attendance using the school calendar, fostering collaboration between families and schools to ensure consistent attendance and support academic success.
- East Valley High School First Period Tardy Challenge Tracking Sheet – A classroom-based competition where first period teachers track daily tardies throughout the week, aiming to reduce late arrivals and promote on-time attendance.
- Kamiakin High School Tardy Reflection Assignment: This short, thoughtful activity encourages students with chronic tardiness to reflect on the causes and impacts of being late, reinforcing the importance of showing up on time.
Define and Teach Good Attendance
Defining and teaching attendance expectations raises awareness about its importance, fostering a culture of regular participation and engaging students, families, and schools in supporting success.
- In the same way we teach academics we can teach behavior, including attendance. Explicitly teaching students about attendance expectations contributes to greater success in this area.
- Does your school or district have a common definition of what good attendance is or have a threshold for Tier 1 attendance? If not, consider starting with this definition. Some schools use catchy slogans like "Strive for Five" or "171 days." Consider involving your staff, teachers, and families in the creation of this definition to create more engagement in this effort.
Communicating to 海角社区 About Attendance
Effective communication with families about attendance fosters engagement and builds partnerships that support regular attendance. Clear and consistent messaging emphasizes the importance of attendance.
- The??provides six principles to enhance communication methods, making it easier for busy families to stay connected and support their child's education.?
- The recently published research on how to communicate effectively with parents about absences and how to encourage them to attend.
- Introducing the , which helps you select a data-driven, strengths-based, research-informed key message while planning monthly communications, assigning roles, tracking details, and measuring impact.
- Parent Conversations for Attendance Conferences is a guide featuring step-by-step prompts for warm, supportive conversations about your child's attendance to foster effective family–school collaboration.
- Find? of all ages on the Attendance Works website.?
When students feel a strong sense of belonging and connection to their school, they are more likely to attend regularly. By enhancing school connectedness, educators can create a positive atmosphere that encourages consistent attendance.
- Fostering school connectedness is a high-leverage, school-wide activity that will increase your student's attendance, engagement, and reengagement.
Positive and Engaging School Climate
- Do your students & families feel safe, engaged, and supported at school? You can use existing data sources (like the Healthy Youth Survey or your own climate survey), or you could try the??that has you see your school through the lens of your students and parents.?
- Learn how? to increase attendance.?
- Find resources on developing?parent and family engagement.?
Celebrating and Incentivizing Good Attendance
- Taking the time and dedicating resources to celebrating good attendance can be a strong and fun motivator for students to improve or keep up their attendance. Please view tips on? and other?
- Remember to celebrate improved attendance, not perfect attendance!?
- Rethinking Perfect Attendance Awards Article
- Tier 2: Early Intervention (Small Group Supports)
Tier 2 (students missing 10% to 19% of the school year ~ approx. 15% of students):
Early interventions are provided for students with mild to moderate attendance challenges.
- are an evidence-based strategy that uses social comparison or norms to "nudge" the behavior of students and families. Contact your student information system administrator or service provider to learn more about attendance nudge letter options.
- Peer mentoring involves youth mentoring other youth, often an older student with a younger student, and can have significant positive benefits for both students. Read guidance on .
- Building on the concept that attendance is a behavior, an attendance advisory is a Tier 2 group intervention that increases the skills needed to be present and on time. Find sample curriculum developed by Keithley Middle School in Franklin Pierce School District that teaches skills like sleep hygiene and time management.
For both excused and unexcused absences, early interventions that address the root cause is the most effective approach. Whether a parent conference, a phone call or a home visit, these conversations with families and students are opportunities to get curious and to seek to understand the underlying reasons for absences and devise solutions. For ideas that address specific barriers or root causes, please see the Root Causes page.
Early Interventions through Family & Student Problem Solving
- Tier 3: Intensive Intervention (Individual Support)
Tier 3 (missing 20% or more of the school year ~ approx. 5% of students):
Intensive interventions are targeted at students with the most significant attendance difficulties.
Tier 3 provides intensive, personalized assistance to students who miss school the most. Case management at Tier 3 ensures targeted support for students with the highest absenteeism rates, helping them overcome barriers and improve attendance.
Check & Connect
Check & Connect is an evidence-based mentoring intervention that builds a strong relationship between the mentor and the student, offers individualized support, partners with families, and engages with the student on attendance, behavior, and grades. Read more about the .
海角社区 visits are an excellent strategy to connect with families and students that are not attending school and may not be responding to other communication efforts.
See 海角社区 海角社区 Visits Toolkit
Community Engagement Board
A Community Engagement Board (CEB) is a collaboration between schools, community partners, juvenile court, and the student and family. A CEB is intended to provide a supportive space where the student and family can openly discuss and identify the reasons behind student absences. It is also a place where the team can identify resources and supports to improve the student’s re-engagement in school and connection within their community.
Find 海角社区’s guidance, videos and templates to support your district to implement Community Engagement Boards on the Truancy Supports and Resources webpage.
Note: The Washington State Legislature changed the name of Community Truancy Boards (CTBs) to Community Engagement Boards (CEBs) effective September 2021
- Plan for the Year
- Real World Examples
- Yakama Nation Tribal School Attendance Team
- ?- Jennifer Norman, Assistant Principal
- ?- Mike McCune, Assistant Principal
- Wapato Case Study - Where did we start as a district?
- Engaging Community Partners
Community members, organizations, and businesses are critical partners in this work. This work is not on schools alone; there are many willing helping hands. Here are a few ways that community partners can support students in attending school:
- prizes for incentive programs
- advertising on reader boards
- posters in business windows
- volunteers for tutoring or mentoring
- participating on the community engagement board
Visit the?for more ideas on how community partners can be engaged to support attendance.
ESD Attendance Support
Several Educational Service District have Attendance and/or Reengagement Coordinators to provide regional support.
- Attendance Research
- (Attendance Works)
- (FutureEd and Attendance Works)
- ESSER Attendance & Reengagement Lessons Learned
海角社区 supported attendance & reengagement through the ESSER Attendance & Reengagement Project. Find out more by reading the Attendance and Reengagement Project Explainer.
Project Evaluation Case Studies