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  • Erica Peterson

Implement These Attendance Strategies Today

Prepare for 2023-2024 School Year

As we navigate the rocky path of recovery, districts have an opportunity to finish the year strong and change the trajectory for the opening of school next year. In our ACSA webinar, “What Every Superintendent and Cabinet Executive Needs to Know About Attendance Management & Achievement,” Dr. Tony Wold and I laid out a plan for districts to do just that. Key strategies for right now include:


Focus on Triage:

  • Saturday Academies: leverage Saturday school as another expanded learning opportunity. If you don’t have Saturday school create one. If you have one, expand it across more schools and/or more weekends.

  • Open enrollment: Message the critical importance of attendance in all enrollment activities

    • Kindergarten Round-Up

    • School choice has grown, advertising what great programs your LEA offers

    • Intra/Inter district transfer

  • With staffing shortages and administrative turnover, strong districts have implemented systems that negated the impact.

    • Stop burnout: Work smarter, not harder to go beyond the auto-dialer

      • Use automation for attendance notices- text, email, and letter production can all be automated

    • Focus on the positives: Not only do positive communications about attendance improve attendance but they foster better parent-school relationships

With P2 almost here, our focus needs to be ensuring that we have a solid, structured approach to attendance management for the 2023-2024 school year.

  • We need to make a change this year to have the trend data to start the next year on the ground running

  • The financial impact of the 3-year ADA averaging means that each year we wait to begin addressing the issue is going to be 3-years of future reduced funding

  • For more tips on what to do right now for a strong start next year, watch the clip


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