Could Fixing Chronic Absence Transform a School’s Culture?

West Seaford Elementary had a big problem. About a quarter of its students were missing school more than 10% of the time. The problem of chronic absence was so significant that staff and student morale (to say nothing of academic performance) was slumping.

When Principal Laura Schneider, Ed.D., took the helm, she and her team decided to work on the attendance problem like they’d work on a learning problem—using multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) to prevent absences from getting out of hand in the first place.  

Spoiler alert:  It’s working.

At a time when many other schools are still struggling to revive pre-COVID attendance numbers, West Seaford has gone from a chronic absence rate near 22% to just 9%. That’s far below the 33% national rate for the 2021-22 school year.

The numbers are impressive, and so is the shift in school culture. School counselor Jordan Forston describes it this way: “The kids are happier and more focused when they’re not worried about catching up on missed work, when they know what’s going to be happening every day. And teachers know they can trust the tiered system, where there are multiple people involved in tracking what’s going on with our kids.”

The culture change aligns with educational research that links attendance to a sense of connectedness and engagement among students (Mooney et al., 2023). Multi-tiered systems of support are associated with greater self-efficacy in teachers, which can improve their well-being and lessen burnout (Nichols et al., 2020).

How does MTSS prevent chronic absence?   

Just as is true of academic MTSS plans, initial attendance interventions apply to all students. They include instructional and screening components. 

Tier 1 Attendance Interventions 

Tier 1 interventions at West Seaford focus on an intensive communication plan. Roughly 97% of families are connected to the school through ClassDojo, which enables teachers to message parents when a child is late. “That one gentle push can sometimes keep late from becoming absent,” Principal Schneider says.  

The school also educates families about the risks associated with absence, sometimes using resources from advocacy groups like Attendance Works. At times of the school year when absences tend to be more likely, the school may reach out to families proactively or schedule a spirit week to encourage steady attendance. Attendance scores are posted around the school and discussed at parent-teacher conferences and workshops.

“We can’t expect families to just ‘get’ why attendance is important,” Fortson explains. “We work hard to make sure families understand why we have high expectations, that we’re going to be checking on attendance, and that we’re going to help them however we can.”   

West Seaford’s attendance team monitors absences every two weeks from the start of the school year.  The team is comprised of the principal, assistant principal, school counselor, special education coordinator, and reading specialist, along with a school nurse, attendance secretary, social worker, and family crisis therapist when available. Teachers aren’t usually on the team because it meets during school hours.

“At our first meeting, we look at absences in the school as a whole,” Schneider says. “At the next meetings, we look at student subgroups and grade levels we know are more vulnerable to chronic absence. We look at individual student data to see who falls into the low, moderate, high, or extreme absence levels. Low or moderate is less than 10% of school days up to that point; so, if we were at 100 days, anyone with 10 or more absences would be a tier 2 or tier 3 student. We implement supports according to the tier, unless we call home and find out that the supports in that tier are inappropriate for the child.” 

Tier 2 Attendance Interventions 

Tier 2 supports include personalized outreach to families to ask what obstacles might be present and what strategies could help. They can also include motivators such as setting attendance goals with a student, having them track their attendance on a calendar, and earning incentives for meeting their goals.

Tier 3 Attendance Interventions 

In tier 3, the school and family co-create an individual attendance plan for the student, complete with 3 parent commitments and 3 school commitments. The plan sometimes identifies a short list of people who can be available to help with transportation to school.

“This has helped us all to focus on our relationships with our families,” Schneider says. “There have been times when the counselor and I have helped with transportation from the nearby apartment complex which allows us to talk to families who might be less likely to visit the school building.” 

Strong bonds with neighborhood families haven’t always been easy to form. Forston says, “We have families who have had a lot of experience with broken schools. They may have been overlooked. It may have felt like the school did not care or didn’t want to get to know them.  We have to build that trust, so they realize their kids are safe when they come here.”  

Fortson recounts the story of a young student who shared with her teacher that when she got home from school, her mom was not there.

“Her mom spoke only Creole,” Forston says. “One of our teachers speaks Creole, so she reached out to mom and discovered that she was expecting a baby, and there was a problem with the pregnancy.” A neighbor had watched the student while her mom sought treatment.

The baby would need to be delivered at a special facility in another state. The family would need to stay nearby at the Ronald McDonald House for around two months after the birth.

“Knowing in advance helped us make a plan. We got the family a Chromebook and uploaded the student’s lessons. She and her teacher worked together daily, sending video messages back and forth. And she wasn’t marked absent a single day,” Forston says. Providers at the Ronald McDonald House called to say how impressed they were with the school’s involvement. 

Aware the family had experienced job and housing loss because of the baby’s health, the school helped the family arrange new housing and had a van waiting to bring her to back school. They provided her with clothing, shoes, and school supplies. When she stepped through the door, she said, “This is the best day ever, because I am back in school.” 

How did school culture change for everyone at West Seaford? 

That student’s story is one of many at West Seaford. Using MTSS to prevent chronic absence has helped to re-shape how it feels to be part of the school.

It’s fostered a sense of belonging for students.  

“Kids like structure, so if they miss a couple of days, they may feel less of a sense of belonging,” Schneider points out. “If they’re not sure of new procedures or new learning, they can be ‘off’ emotionally, as well. And when people are absent chronically, it can affect friendships between kids.” 

It’s strengthened relationships with families.

“When a kid is not here, we’re on it,” Forston says. “Teachers have a conversation with the family right away, and that can be when we find out the reason behind the absence. Maybe the parent says, ‘We lost our house last night,’ or ‘I worked a double and was exhausted.’ If you’re in a school and you’re not tracking chronic absence from day one, by the time you notice, it may be too late to set up services to help the family.” 

It's made life a little easier for teachers. 

“If kids aren’t coming to school every day, a teacher has to keep re-teaching over and over, which affects the flow of tier 1 instruction for the whole class,” Schneider says. “In our experience, teachers quickly realized that what may have seemed like an additional burden at first [reaching out to families about absences] paid dividends in the end because they didn’t have to do as much re-teaching and their kids excelled in reading. Our oral reading fluency for grade 1 shot up 186%, which is important because oral reading fluency is a predictor of reading proficiency in upper grades. That’s why oral reading fluency was one of our school goals. Teachers saw that a simple phone call or text was so meaningful to the parents. They saw a direct link between student achievement and kids coming to school.” 

Key Messages

School leaders have long recognized that chronic absence jeopardizes learning, graduation rates, and outcomes later in life. What many now understand is that it can also jeopardize the way it feels to be in school day to day—for everyone. 

Establishing MTSS to boost attendance has had a powerful influence on school culture and achievement at West Seaford. Perhaps the school counselor says it best: “You can have a really cool positive behavior incentive system, you can track all the right behaviors, you can buy the best curriculum and paint the school any color you want. But if the kids aren’t there, what is the point?” 

Learn more:  

• How to Communicate with Families to Build Connection, Engagement, and Trust 
• How to Assess the 5 Components of Reading This Year