Attendance- Why it matters
and what to do about it
Amber Brundage
9/21/15
[email protected]
Objectives
 Know what chronic absenteeism is and the implications
 Know the rates of chronic absenteeism for your district
and schools within the district
 Understand strategies and tools that can help you
combat chronic absenteeism as a barrier
 Develop action steps for addressing chronic
absenteeism
Advance Organizer
 Chronic Absenteeism Overview
 Definition
 Identification
 Prevalence
 Implications of Chronic Absenteeism
 Academic
 Graduation/Post-secondary
 Community
 Responding to Chronic Absenteeism
 Problem Solving Model
 District and School Examples
 Examples
 Resources
Attendance Background
Information
 Florida Law (Section 1003.21, Florida Statutes) states:
 All children who are either six years of age, who will be six years
old by February 1 of any school year, or who are older than six
years of age but who have not attained the age of 16 years, must
attend school regularly during the entire school term.
 A student who attains the age of 16 years during the school year
is not subject to compulsory attendance beyond the date of which
the student attains that age if he/she files a formal declaration of
intent to terminate school enrollment with the school district.
What is Chronic Absenteeism
(CA)?
 No standard definition
 Often based on total number of days missed
 Doesn’t differentiate reasons for absences
 States vary in threshold for number of days (15-21)
 Frequently defined as:
 Missing 10% or more of instructional days (18+)
 Florida one of few states that collect data on CA
 FL reports students missing 21 or more days per year
How Do We Identify Students who are
CA?
 The use of Early Warning Systems (EWS) attendance
indicator
 18+ days annually
 9+days per semester
 4-5 days per quarter
 Previous year data- create a “watch list”
 September Attendance- Olson, 2014
 0-2 Days
 2+ Days
 4+ Days
Attendance Works – Chronic
Absenteeism Video
 http://www.attendanceworks.org/new-videoattendance-works-a-community-imperative/
 https://vimeo.com/63614396
How does this differ from truancy?
 Truancy typically defined as specified number or
frequency of unexcused absences within a given time
period
 Often an underestimate of the absenteeism magnitude
 Florida law defines "habitual truant" as a student who
has 15 or more unexcused absences within 90
calendar days with or without the knowledge or consent
of the student's parent or guardian, and who is subject
to compulsory school attendance.
Make a Prediction
 Estimate how many k-12
students you think in the US
are Chronically absent each
year:
 100,00 or less
 250,000 -500,000
 500,000- 1,000,000
 1,000,000-5,000,000
 5,000,000-10,000,000
 Estimate how many k-12
students in FL were absent in
the 13/14 school year:
 20,000-50,000
 50,00-100,000
 100,000-200,000
 200,000-300,000
What is the prevalence of CA nationally?
 Based on national research, conservative estimates:
 10% of US students miss 21+ days of school per year
 14-15% of US students miss 18+ days of school per year
5-7.5 Million students each
year!!
Balfanz & Byrnes, 2012
What is the prevalence of CA in
FL?
 According to data reported to FL DOE during the
2013/2014 school year, 9.5% of K-12 students were
absent 21+ days
292,297 students
What does 292, 297 students look like?
88,548
82,300
65,890
54, 559 out of 76,100
2013-14 Chronic Absenteeism Rates by
District
0 – 9.9%
10% – 14.9%
15% – 19.9%
20% – 30%
Source: Education Information and Accountability Services,
Florida Department of Education
Who is CA- Rates by Grade
Balfanz & Byrnes, 2012
CA Students in FL by Level (2011-12)
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
PreK
K-5
6-8
FLDOE Survey 5 – March 2013
9-12
CA Students in FL by Grade-Level (2011-12)
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
FLDOE Survey 5 – March 2013
Who is CA- by Demographics
Balfanz & Byrnes, 2012
What are Legal Requirements for
Attendance- District Level?
 Florida law (Section 1003.26, Florida Statutes) specifies steps
for enforcement of regular school attendance. It is the
responsibility of the school district superintendent to enforce
school attendance of all children who are subject to compulsory
school age requirements. The responsibility includes:
 Develop policies and procedures to ensure that schools respond in
a timely manner to each unexcused absence, or absence for
which the reason is unknown.
 Contact the home for every unexcused absence or absence for
which the reason is unknown, to obtain parent justification for the
absence.
 Evaluate each justification and, based on district policy, determine
whether the absence is excused or unexcused; if excused, allow
the student to make up assigned work without academic penalty.
Legal Requirements Continued
 Track excused and unexcused absences.
 Identify and refer students who may be developing a pattern of
nonattendance to the school child study team for intervention
services.
 Schedule a meeting with certain identified parents to discuss their
child's attendance.
 Implement prevention and intervention strategies to address
truancy and attendance issues as required for drivers' licenses
and related requirements for habitual truants.
 Send a notice to the superintendent of schools and to the district
home education contact regarding patterns of nonattendance for
specific students.
 Refer habitual truancy cases to the case staffing committee and/or
child-in-need- of-services provider for assistance
What are Legal Requirements for
Attendance- School-Level?
 The policies must provide that public schools track excused
and unexcused absences and contact the home in the case of
an unexcused absence from school, or an absence from
school for which the reason is unknown, to prevent the
development of patterns of nonattendance.
School Requirements
Continued
 Each public school shall implement the following steps to
promote and enforce regular school attendance:
 (1) CONTACT, REFER, AND ENFORCE.—
 (a) Upon each unexcused absence, or absence for which the
reason is unknown, the school principal or his or her designee
shall contact the student’s parent to determine the reason for
the absence. If the absence is an excused absence, as defined
by district school board policy, the school shall provide
opportunities for the student to make up assigned work and not
receive an academic penalty unless the work is not made up
within a reasonable time.
School Requirements Continued
 If a student has had:




at least five unexcused absences,
or absences for which the reasons are unknown, within a calendar month
or 10 unexcused absences,
or absences for which the reasons are unknown, within a 90-calendarday period
 The student’s primary teacher shall report to the school principal or his or
her designee that the student may be exhibiting a pattern of
nonattendance.
 The principal shall, unless there is clear evidence that the absences are
not a pattern of nonattendance, refer the case to the school’s child study
team to determine if early patterns of truancy are developing.
 If the child study team finds that a pattern of nonattendance is
developing, whether the absences are excused or not:
 a meeting with the parent must be scheduled to identify potential
remedies, and the principal shall notify the district school superintendent
and the school district contact for home education programs that the
referred student is exhibiting a pattern of nonattendance.
School Requirements
Continued
 If an initial meeting does not resolve the problem, the child study
team shall implement the following:
1. Frequent attempts at communication between the teacher and the
family.
2. Evaluation for alternative education programs.
3. Attendance contracts.
 The child study team may, but is not required to, implement other
interventions, including referral to other agencies for family
services or recommendation for filing a truancy petition pursuant
to s. 984.151.
 (d) The child study team shall be diligent in facilitating
intervention services and shall report the case to the district
school superintendent only when all reasonable efforts to resolve
the nonattendance behavior are exhausted.
I
Implications of Chronic
Absenteeism
What are the Academic Implications of CA?
 Students CA in Kindergarten have lower academic performance
in 1st
 Lowest achievement levels in 5th grade
 2 X’s greater impact for low SES (Chang & Romero, 2008)
 Baltimore study found those who were CA in Pre-K and K more
likely to be:
 CA in later grades
 Retained
 Lower achievement levels (Connolly & Olson, 2012)
 A study by GA DOE found that 3% increase (5 days) in
attendance would have led to more than 55,000 students to
pass ELA, reading or math standardized tests in grades 3-8
most impactful for those who missed 5-10 days of school
(Balfanz & Byrnes, 2012)
Implications of CA- Continued
 Students with chronic absenteeism in middle grades
are at high risk for course failure in high school
(Allensworth, Gwynne, Moore & de la Torre, 2014)
 Among 9th graders, attendance was the strongest
predictor of course performance which was the
strongest predictor of graduation (Allensworth & Easton 2007)
 GA DOE found moving from 5 absences to 6-10
absences reduced graduation rates by 7-10 percentage
points
 Moving from 6-10 to 11-14 absences resulted in 11-14
percentage point decline in graduation rates (Balfanz &
Byrnes, 2012)
Florida CA and FCAT Scores
Balfanz & Byrnes, 2012
What are the Implications for DropoutUtah 2010 Graduating Cohort?
Henderson, Hill, & Norton, 2014
What are the Graduation & Post-Secondary
Implications for Students with CA- National Center
for Educational Statistics ELS 2002?
Balfanz & Byrnes, 2012
What are the Community Implications for CA?
 Data from New York and Rhode Island show that 3/4ths of
those with Juvenile Justice involvement had a history of CA
(www.ridatahub.org)
 Higher daytime crime rates
 Data from California found that 60% of juvenile crime happened
between 8am-3pm when students should have been in school
 In FL 10/11 school-year roughly 83,500 students did not
graduate with their cohort which will translate into loss of:
 4000 new jobs
 $597 million in GSP
American Bar Association Commission on Youth At Risk, 2012
Responding to Chronic
Absenteeism
How do we respond to CA?
Define the Problem/Goal
 Step One –
Critical
Elements




Desired goal(s)
Current student(s)
performance level(s)
Current performance of
comparable group
Gap analysis
 Attendance Application:

What is our desired goal?
 80% of students with 95% or better
attendance (9 or fewer absences per year)
 5% or fewer students chronically absent (18+
days)
 What is current performance?
 What percentage of students have 95% or
greater attendance? (Tier 1)
 What percentage of students are chronically
absent? (Tier 1)
 What is the current performance of comparable
group?
 District-wide
 Regionally
 School
 Grade-level
 Sub-group
Look for outliers- positive and negative
 What is the gap between current performance
and the goal?
Analyze the Problem
 Step Two –
Attendance Application:
Critical
Elements
 Generate evidence based hypotheses:


Generate evidence
based hypotheses
 Frameworks of
domains to generate
hypotheses
Validate/invalidate
hypotheses
Balfanz & Byrnes (2012) 3 reasons:
 Can’t- something prevents them from attending

(illness, transportation, child care or family obligations)
Won’t- avoidance of interactions or events at school
(affective or perceptions physical/psychological safety
issues)

Don’t- would
rather be somewhere else or do not
make the effort to attend school (engagement)
Systems Hypotheses
 Policies
 Procedures/Practices
 Validate/invalidate hypotheses
 Collect data to determine the reasons for
absences:




Surveys
Self-Assessments
Interviews
Policy/practice analysis
Develop and Implement a Plan
 Step Three – Critical
Elements
 Link instruction/intervention to
validated hypotheses
 Specific action plans (what, when,
where, who, support)
 Monitoring for fidelity
 Integrate within tiers
Attendance
Application:
 Match intervention type and
intensity to need across tiers
 Develop specific action plans
at various levels:
 District
 School
 Grade-level
 Class
 Subgroup
 Student
Intervention Options- Tier 1
 District or school-wide attendance goals
 Increased focus on collection, monitoring and reporting of attendance data to all









stakeholders
 Students
 Family
 Community
Public recognition of good and improved attendance
Homeroom/Class attendance competitions
School health programs
Social-emotional curriculum
Anti-violence/bullying curriculum
Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
 Flexible pacing
 Student learning communities
 Students as instructional problem solvers
 Multiple engagement options and instructional scaffold tools to meet student needs
Restorative Justice Process
Transportation support
District and school policies that support attendance
 Suspension due to absences
 Make-up work
 Tardy policies
Intervention Options Tiers 2 & 3
 Attendance/re-engagement contracts










 Restorative Justice approach
Wake-up calls
Mentors
 Specific protocols
Peer attendance buddy
Check & Connect
Daily Check-in
 Phone call when absent
Connection with physical/dental and mental health providers
Alternate transportation options
Counseling groups
Community agency supports
Academic interventions
Evaluate the Response to Instruction/Intervention
Attendance Application:
 Step Four –
Critical
Elements
 Monitor progress
with appropriate
frequency
 Establish Positive,
Questionable, or
Poor response
 Make appropriate
instructional
decisions based on
established
response
 Monitoring may be at individual or aggregate level
 Reduction in absences
 Frequency
 Duration
 Does the intervention intensity match the
need????
 Depending on Tier/intensity of intervention progress
monitoring may be:
 Daily
Weekly
Monthly
 Quarterly Semester Annually
 Evaluation of the system
 Intervention effectiveness
 Reduction in students who are off-track for
attendance or are CA for at least 70%
 System monitoring and response to CA
 Self Assessment
 Number/percentage of CA students receiving
interventions with intensity matched to need
District and School Examples
District Example- Background
 District exploration started as questions about
attendance in general and as an off-shoot of work at a
specific school
 Attendance reporting practices
 Attendance as a Tier 1 issue
 School specific concerns
What is the percentage of students absent by threshold?
For each school level (Elementary, Middle, High)
Average Percent of Students by Days Absent
40%
35%
35%
33%
31%
29%
Percent of Students
30%
25%
22%
21%
21%
20%
20%
19%
18%
ES
MS
16%
15%
HS
12%
10%
9%
10%
7%
5%
0%
0-4
4-9
10-14
Days Absent
15-19
20+
What is the percentage of students proficient by threshold?
For each school level (Elementary, Middle, High)
Percent of Students Proficient by Absent Threshold
60.00%
56%
56%
56%
52%
51%
50.00%
49%
46%
44%
41%
41%
40%
40.00%
36%
35%
31%
30.00%
ES
27%
MS
HS
20.00%
10.00%
0.00%
0-4
5-9
10-14
15-19
20+
What is the difference in average absences by GPA
when calculating by days compared to by period?
Average Absences by GPA
40
Traditional
36
By Period
Avearge Number of Absences
35
30
25
27
23
20
20
16
14
15
11
10
7
5
0
0-1.09
1.1-2.09
2.1-3.09
GPA
3.1-4.0
Recommendation #1
Student Engagement Workgroup
Purpose
Use Early Warning System to review
trend data, answer key questions,
categorize regions and school based on
tiered levels of need, make
recommendations for changes to
policies and procedures, communicate
with regional teams and student
services PLC teams, develop strategic
plan, monitor effectiveness of school
plans
Timelines: Feb, Apr, Jun
Other Factors
Community Involvement
Data Systems (tools and timelines)
Status and scope of SE interventions
Membership

















LCED
Principal (High School)
Principal (Elementary)
High School AP
Middle School AP
Elementary AP
USEP Representative
School Social Worker (Itinerant)
School Social Worker (School
Based)
School Nurse
School Counselor
School Psychologist
SSAP Teacher
Information Services Representative
OSSPS Supervisor – ESE Division
Classroom Teacher (High School)
Classroom Teacher (Elementary)
Recommendation #2
Data Analysis and PS with Schools
Barriers
 Defining attendance (How is
attendance defined for datainformed decisions and balanced
with state definitions)
 Recording attendance with
respect to data quality
Solutions (for Discussion)
 Definition
 Data Quality Expectations
 Accessibility (Pasco Star)
 Accessing data (data team – who)
 Matching Interventions
 Using data and a problem-solving
 Monitoring Interventions
process to inform interventions
 Monitoring effectiveness
 Other?
Another District ExampleBackground
 District exploration began as parallel work to EWS
development with the District Leadership Team
 Questions about attendance/CA as Tier 1 issue and need
for more data to effectively problem-solve
District Attendance Example
School Example- Background
 Request for support resulted from EWS presentation and
school guidance counselors perceived need
School Example Continued
 Met with the problem solving team
 Reviewed multiple sources of data




Attendance (Early Warning Systems)
Gallup Poll results
Teacher and Student Surveys
Student Interviews – Tier III Students
 Problem-Solving Process to:
 Identify Problem using data
 Develop hypotheses and analyze the data
 Develop action plans
Data Summary
Data Summary Continued
Small Group Planning and Problem-Solving
Small Group Planning and Problem-Solving
Resources
 Publications, tools, webinars, videos, resources
http://www.attendanceworks.org/
 NYC Mayor Interagency Truancy Task Force
http://www.nyc.gov/html/truancy/html/school/school.shtml
Toolkit
http://www.nyc.gov/html/truancy/html/resources/publications.shtml
Creating Success Mentors Program
http://www.nyc.gov/html/truancy/downloads/pdf/creating-an-internalsuccess-mentor-corps.pdf
 Balfanz & Byrnes 2012 Publication
https://ct.global.ssl.fastly.net/media/W1siZiIsIjIwMTQvMDgvMTUvMjE
1dnkya3BzOF9GSU5BTENocm9uaWNBYnNlbnRlZWlzbVJlcG9yd
F9NYXkxNi5wZGYiXV0/FINALChronicAbsenteeismReport_May16
.pdf.pdf?sha=ffcb3d2b
 Everyone Graduates Center
http://www.every1graduates.org/
Student and Teacher Survey Organized Around
Balfanz’s 3 Reasons
Attendance Works- School Self
Assessment
http://www.attendanceworks.org/wordpress/wpcontent/uploads/2012/06/School-Self-Assessment-Team-Rev-June-2012.pdf
Student Thoughts on Attendance
 http://www.nyc.gov/html/truancy/html/news/studentproduced-videos.shtml
What is your role in combating 292, 297?
88,548
82,300
65,890
54, 559 out of 76,100
Additional Readings
Allensworth, E. M., & Easton, J. Q. (2005). The on-track indicator as a predictor of high school graduation.
Consortium on Chicago School Research, University of Chicago. Retrieved from
http://ccsr.uchicago.edu/publications/p78.pdf
Allensworth, E. M., & Easton, J. Q. (2007). What matters for staying on track and graduating in Chicago public
high schools. Consortium on Chicago School Research, University of Chicago. Retrieved from
http://ccsr.uchicago.edu/publications/07%20What%20Matters%20Final.pdf
Allesnworth, E. M., Gwynne, J. A., Moore, P., & de la Torre, M. (2014). Looking forward to high school and college
Middle grades indicators of readiness in Chicago public schools. Consortium on Chicago School Research,
University of Chicago. Retrieved from
https://ccsr.uchicago.edu/sites/default/files/publications/Middle%20Grades%20Report.pdf
American Bar Association Commission on Youth At-risk. 2012. Legal and educational system solutions for youth:
Report from a Leadership and Policy Forum on Truancy and
Dropout Prevention. Retrieved from
http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/publications/center_on_children_and_the_law/youth_at_risk/tru
ancy_dropout_report.authcheckdam.pdf
Balfanz, R., & Byrnes, V. (2012). Chronic Absenteeism: Summarizing What We Know From Nationally Available
Data. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Center for Social Organization of Schools.
Balfanz, R., Herzog, L., MacIver, D., (2007). Preventing student disengagement and keeping students on the
graduation path in urban middle-grades schools: Early identification and effective interventions. Educational
Psychologist, 42(4), 223-235.
Additional Readings Continued
Chang, Hedy N. & Romero, Mariajosé 2008. Present, engaged and accounted for the
critical importance of addressing chronic absence in the early grades. National Center
for Children in Poverty (NCCP): The Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia
University.
Connolly, F. & Olson, L. S. 2012. Early elementary performance and attendance in Baltimore City Schools’ pre-kindergarten and
kindergarten. Baltimore Education Research Consortium, Baltimore, MD.
Henderson, T., Hill, C. & Norton, K. 2014. The connection between missing school and health: A review of chronic absenteeism
and student health in Oregon. Upstream Public Health.
John W. Gardner Center for Youth and their Communities, Stanford University. (2014). Menu of college readiness indicators
and supports. College Readiness Indicator Systems Resource Series. Seattle, WA: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
National High School Center. (2012). National high school center early warning system middle grades tool technical manual.
Washington, DC: Author. Retrieved from
http://www.betterhighschools.org/documents/NHSC_EWSMiddleGradesTechManual.pdf
Olson, L. S., 2014. Why September matters: Improving student attendance. Baltimore Education Research Consortium,
Baltimore, MD. Retrieved from : http://baltimore-berc.org/wpcontent/uploads/2014/08/SeptemberAttendanceBriefJuly2014.pdf
Contact Information
Amber Brundage
PK-12 Alignment Unit Coordinator
[email protected]