Introduction
On January 19, the Katy Independent School District Team shared their comprehensive approach to Attendance Improvement at the Every Day Matters Summit. Check it Out!
About Katy ISD
The Katy Independent School District is located in Katy, Texas just west of the fourth largest city in the United States, Houston. Katy ISD believes that all learners are unique and thrive through personalized learning experiences. Katy ISD also believes that collaboration which honors all voices, creates ownership that drives personal accountability.
The latter, being the reason why in regard to Attendance and Truancy, everyone plays an important role at both the campus and district levels. The Departments of Attendance and Truancy, under School Leadership and Support, work together at the district level to support campuses by creating guidelines, ongoing training, and processes to re-engage students to regular attendance.
Both departments team up to ensure attendance coding and truancy prevention steps are done accurately and followed in a systematic, yet individualized way to combat low attendance rates and promote academic achievement.
At the campus level, the principal and administration team know their student community best and have the autonomy to implement and incentivize as they see fit to maximize results.
In Leveraging Attendance Supports to Improve Student Success in Katy ISD, Mayde Creek High School is featured as one of the top schools to create an attendance focused campus culture. Mayde Creek High School serves a culturally diverse population of 2,935 students of whom 80% are economically disadvantaged. The Student Support Assistant Principal and Dropout Prevention Facilitator work hand in hand along with the counselors, social worker, attendance clerks, and other administration staff with the goal to meet with students, review their attendance records, set up Attendance Improvement Plans, and monitor their progress. This work has proven to be challenging as students or families may be difficult to contact. However, the follow through and persistence lead to home visits that allow an additional opportunity for connection, and often times, a referral to counseling or social work services. These home visits are vital to the success of Truancy Prevention. It is important to note that it is always encouraged to have two campus team members make home visits with the purpose of finding the root of the truancy problem and in the spirit of providing resources or help the student and family. Mayde Creek High School does an excellent job of using the tools available to them, such as the RaaWee dashboards, interal Katy ISD Attendance and Off Cohort dashboards, and reports as well as social media to track and share attendance information respectively. Creating friendly competitions among grade levels and mentioning the attendance rate for each on a weekday encourages students to make every effort to be in class daily.
People respond well to those they trust and have developed relationships with. By establishing a climate of caring and compassion, all counselors, administrators, and truancy clerks know that everything is done for the success of their children. With every meeting, they get to know the people who lead the charge at the campuses. In doing this, acknowledging the great job each is already doing.
As mentioned in this presentation, a key factor to working efficiently, is working together—everyone makes a difference! Dropout Prevention Facilitators, Academic Counselors, Social Workers, Student Case Managers, Licensed Specialists in School Psychology, Administration Staff, Attendance Clerks, and many other important positions are the first point of contact for families needing help, working together and meeting regularly enable action plans for attendance improvement.
About the Author
Gabriela Pulido
Dropout Prevention, Intervention, and Recovery Coordinator, Katy ISD
gabrielapulido@katyisd.org
