Attendance Pilot Program
What is it?
Columbia Heights Public Schools was selected with twelve other school districts to participate in a pilot program to focus on student attendance at school. Over the coming year there will be a variety of communications emphasizing the importance of attending school every day and on time. We are calling this initiative “Attend Today and Achieve Great Heights!”
When students come to school late they often miss breakfast and important curriculum such as morning meetings and literacy instruction at the elementary schools. When students miss school, they not only miss the instruction of all the subjects taught that day but they also miss the social, emotional, and physical development that is supported by our teachers and staff.
Our teachers give such care and intentionality in their lesson planning – please help make sure your student can fully benefit from our outstanding teachers and caring school community!
Purpose
The pilot program is established to support districts developing and implementing innovative strategies to improve student attendance, and help policymakers determine how to effectively support district efforts to improve student attendance and engagement.
The pilot program is effective for the 2024-2025, 2025-2026, and 2026-2027 school years.
Tactics
- Implement an attendance team at each school building to detect the underlying reasons/causes for students who are chronically absent and then create strategies for supporting them.
- Meet with all the school principals to elicit their input to improve attendance
- Link attendance data and academic achievement data to engage in supportive conversations
- Increase sense of belonging for students who are identified as chronically absent and assign an adult to connect with them
- Ensuring that students who are chronically absent are connected to learning during the day and included in afterschool activities
Outcomes
- Reduce chronic absenteeism by 20% by the end of 2024-25 academic year
- Increase attendance communication with families and students
- Increase the percentage of students who are consistently attending school to the state average of 69.8% in year 1.