“It’s been extremely beneficial; the state mandates us to take a certain action and RaaWee allows us to do that and much more. So it’s been a very powerful tool,” says Garcia. “Saleem [Qazi, CEO] and his team have been excellent to work with; they’ve always been responsive and supportive. RaaWee has excellent features that help those of us at schools that are struggling with attendance. The communication features are solid. The state requires us to communicate with parents. Well, this software allows us to communicate at a high rate of efficiency. We’re no longer sending letters manually which takes paper, which takes ink, which costs. It’s helped transition from old-school methods to a more efficient method of communication. This is a click of a button and it’s done. It’s much more cost effective, efficient, and streamlines the process. That’s one thing RaaWee has: a good understanding of what is required to be successful in addressing attendance. They have those features and methods in place.”

“On my end, I report to my superiors, my school board, and RaaWee has simple reports that allow me to generate the data, from daily attendance rate to number of absences per day, per campus, per student —it is very specific, or it could be very broad. With the click of a button, I can generate a report that says, ‘This is the district’s attendance rate for today’ or, ‘This is the rate for yesterday’ or, drill it down to the campus level, or drill it down per student. It’s that detailed. It takes all this data and presents it in a manner to where you can understand it—easily.”

Attendance, Plus

“It allows me to identify areas we need to target, schools we need to visit, families we need to visit— the visits aren’t always negative, but for support. It also allows us to identify students when they’re absent. Attendance clerks have the ability to indicate, ‘Hey, this child is absent because he’s got pneumonia, or a medical condition.’ It allows us to break down types of absences we have and, as a result, better provide services and identify areas that need attention. We have services in our district; we can use this data that RaaWee generates, and say, ‘You know, this particular group of individuals, let’s send them to this service – and hope that with that service, it improves their attendance.’ It has extreme potential to change and improve attendance because of what it allows us to identify and track, and it allows us to access resources. I don’t just use it for attendance purposes. I see it for attendance, plus resources,” says Garcia.