The start of a new school year provides the opportunity to consider or re-evaluate how a building’s MTSS framework may be used to prevent unwanted behaviors and encourage positive outcomes. The connection between school attendance and academic success has been widely researched and is well documented. Unfortunately, common practices utilized by schools to reduce absenteeism (sending letters to parents/guardians, making home visits, filing misdemeanor charges) have been shown to be minimally effective. The good news is that “even small improvements in absences and tardies may encourage growth towards more attainable and realistic goals, especially for students with a history of poor attendance” (Balfanz & Byrnes, 2012).
Many factors contributing to absenteeism are addressed within the PBIS framework. Instead of forming a new team to implement standalone and parallel initiatives, a school or district may consider integrating attendance support into its current PBIS continuum of practices. The following are initial tasks a team will complete before developing tiered interventions:
Collect data on the number and percent of students who are regular attenders, at risk, chronically absent, and severely chronically absent. It’s important to note that looking only at average daily attendance can mask problems (e.g. it’s possible to have 90% daily attendance and still have 20 to 30 percent of students who are chronically absent). Some questions to consider when measuring attendance include:
What day of the week or month is the most problematic? What time periods?
What grade levels or classes have the highest absence rate?
What student subgroups are most affected?
Are attendance problems more prevalent in specific neighborhoods?
Write measurable goals based on the specific attendance patterns in the school or district.
Identify existing practices and strategies that could be adapted to achieve the desired goal. If existing supports are not available, appropriate or effective, identify other evidence-based interventions that might be adopted and integrated into the current tiered framework.
Develop an intervention plan that includes monitoring of student progress and implementation fidelity.
Throughout the process, it is important to consider the causes of absenteeism (why are students not coming to school?) as there is a greater need to match the intervention to the reason for the absences as the severity of the behavior increases. Below are examples of interventions and supports that may be used at each tier.
This list of interventions is not exhaustive and schools/districts are encouraged to adapt or create strategies based on their unique needs and resources. As stated, the key is to use a data-driven approach to identify students’ specific attendance challenges and tailor interventions accordingly. For more information, check out THIS webpage, from the Ohio Department of Education. You will find information, support and resources for improving attendance - of particular note is the new Ohio Attendance Guide.
As always, the Student Wellness Department is here to help! Contact Nyeshja Malone at [email protected] to learn more.
Balfanz, R., & Byrnes, V. (2012). Chronic Absenteeism: Summarizing What We Know from Nationally Available Data. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Center for Social Organization of Schools.