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The Power of Relationships & Incentives

School districts nationwide have developed creative programs to incentivize student attendance, yielding positive results. Motivational initiatives show that structured rewards for all contributors can significantly enhance achievement at low costs. Engaging all stakeholders in the attendance improvement process consistently leads to success.

Galena Park Independent School District (ISD) in Houston, TX, exemplifies this with their effective programming. They ensure that frontline personnel and leaders are fully involved by fostering meaningful relationships, healthy competition, and strong recognition across sites. Myra Castaneda, Instructional Services Director at Galena Park ISD, highlighted the district’s programs and successes at the Every Day Matters Summit on February 20, 2020.

As education leaders adapt to COVID-19 updates for the 2020-2021 school year, it’s crucial to translate previous best practices to these new environments. The featured best practices will remain relevant with minimal adjustments. For more information on RaaWee COVID-19 resource updates, visit https://vimeo.com/420374212.

Galena Park ISD

About Galena Park ISD

Galena Park ISD was established in 1930 with G. P. Smith serving as Superintendent. There are two high schools, five middle schools, fifteen elementary schools, and alternative programs staffed by approximately 2,000 teachers, administrators, classified and auxiliary personnel making us one of the largest employers in east Harris County. The District includes 39 square miles outside of Loop 610 East and has a student enrollment of over 22,000.

Galena Park ISD continues to deliver effective instruction to its diverse and growing student population in grades Pre-K through 12 and takes great pride in academics. A variety of outstanding instructional programs are designed to meet the ever-changing needs of the students they serve.  

Day in Day out

“In Galena Park ISD, we prioritize attendance along with student success. It is our goal to have students attending each and every day to prepare students to become productive citizens and lifelong learners. Through leading, learning, and serving as district employees it is our duty to ensure that we are doing all we can do to get our children to school,” emphasizes Ms. Castaneda. 

The GPISD Team and RaaWee

It truly takes a team effort living by the philosophy, “It takes a village,” when it comes to student attendance. Ms. Castaneda punctuates, “The one thing I know for sure is that you can’t have one training and expect everyone to be on board with using a truancy prevention system such as RaaWee with fidelity. It takes trust, several training opportunities, constant reminders, prioritizing attendance, and acknowledgment.” 

Using Relationships & Incentives for Whole Team Buy-In
Certificate Recognition for GPISD Team

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.

Interventions Chart

Incentives for Intervention Providers

By using the User Intervention Report from the district’s RaaWee system, the top users are identified and recognized at every meeting. This shows our frontline staff that the great efforts they are putting in are noticed and appreciated at all levels.

From the beginning of the school year, GPISD set a training calendar for administrators, truancy/attendance clerks, and counselors. RaaWee is a standing agenda item at every meeting. By being consistent in talking about the program, the entire team can work through any issues, questions, or concerns that any may have with the program. Now that the district has been using the program with fidelity for three years, it is the expectation for all administrators, truancy/attendance clerks, and counselors to work collaboratively.

Using Relationships & Incentives for Whole Team Buy-In
Bags Full of Fun Rewards

Truancy / attendance clerks send warning notices, help enter notes in the system, and file on students who have 13 or more unexcused absences. Administrators work hand in hand with all parties to ensure that we are following through with every student who has absences. Not only does this show parents that everyone is keeping track, it genuinely shows the district’s care and concern. GPISD knows that when students are in school, they are safe and fed, as well as educated. 

Using Relationships & Incentives for Whole Team Buy-In

The district initiative of Attend Today, Achieve Tomorrow is the basis of principal plans for improving attendance. At the beginning of the school year, each principal outlines a plan to meet their attendance goals. If those goals are met, the district provides incentive money to use for students. The executive board works with the business office to determine the source of the funds to ensure compliance with the incentives.

The Public Education Information Management System (PEIMS) encompasses all data requested and received by TEA about public education, including student demographic and academic performance, personnel, financial, and organizational information.

PEIMS director for the district sends out a color-coded campus ADA chart.  This chart is a powerful tool that principals and district administrators see every week.  Everyone strives to be in the green or yellow areas. The green is equal to or greater than 97%, the red is below 96.5% and yellow is between 96.51 – 96.99%.

Weekly ADA Report

This chart keeps everyone on their toes and is the ongoing tool used to determine who has met their goals. The district recognizes the campuses that have met or improved on the district’s goal of 96.5%.

For information on the data, reports, and programs featured in the Galena Park ISD best practices email Myra Castaneda at mrcastaneda@galenaparkisd.com or contact RaaWee at janie.wilson@raaweek12.com.

Myra Castaneda
Myra Castaneda
Email Ms. Castaneda

About the Author

Myra Castaneda
Program Director for Educational Support, Galena Park ISD

Myra Castaneda is the Program Director for Educational Support at Galena Park Independent School District (ISD) in Texas. She is dedicated to enhancing educational opportunities for all students and promoting academic success within the district.

In her role, Myra oversees programs that provide essential resources and support to students, educators, and families. She collaborates with teachers, administrators, and community partners to develop innovative strategies that address student needs, fostering a positive learning environment and promoting engagement.

With a strong background in education, Myra is committed to empowering learners and ensuring they have the necessary tools to thrive academically and personally, making a significant impact at Galena Park ISD.

The Problem

Educators often find themselves strategizing how to get parents to become more engaged with their student’s school attendance and classroom activities.
 
And re-engaging students and families after COVID has further emphasized this concern.
HV1
When reminders, notification and warning letters to homes, ongoing phone call attempts, and now, emails and texts, fail to bring truant students back to school, what’s left? Attendance officers often find themselves traveling into neighborhoods/homes where they feel unwelcome and/or unsafe. Generating positive, mutually beneficial relationships in such a stressful situation is difficult (See Goff, 2016).
messy room

Advantages of Home Visits

Home visits by social workers or attendance/truancy officers are vital means to establish positive contact and communication with hard to reach parents and families. These visits are NOT considered alternatives for parent-teacher conferences in schools, instead, the visits create an environment where the families feel more comfortable.
The home visits show a sincere desire to facilitate and work with concerned families, as well as, promote proactive communications through which the school system may provide reliable support to the families and their students. Johnson (2014) termed home visits between schools and families as a means by which to negate “deeply entrenched institutionalized inequities” in the American educational system. He noted that since the lives of educators are often disconnected from the lives of their students, district home visits promote the type of relationships and social support that enhances the academic goals of students.  As well, he was of the view that by restructuring traditional family-educator communications and “blurring the boundaries between classrooms and living rooms,” home visits can positively impact the academic success of the students and reveal valuable educational resources in students’ homes (Johnson, 2014, p. 359).
 
On February 20, 2020, Wil Barbee, Lead Attendance Officer, and Angel Seca, Attendance Officer of Abilene Independent School District (ISD) in Abilene, TX shared Best Practices in Conducting Safe Home Visits at the Every Day Matters Summit.

About Abilene ISD

Abilene ISD Attendance Officers share the belief that home visits are a critical intervention in their toolkit for the most resistant truants and hard-to-reach guardians.
Abilene ISD, TX logo
They are also very realistic in the difficult situations that their officers often walk into. Their best practices for conducting the essential home visits are designed to be productive, efficient and ensure the safety of their eight team members.
 
Abilene ISD consists of 33 schools serving 16,600 students. AISD consists of 44% Hispanic, 37% Anglo, 13% African American, 4% two or more races, and 2% Asian/Pacific Islander. Nearly 70% of students are economically disadvantaged. The Annual Attendance Goal is 97%. 
 

For both efficient and safe home visits, this experienced and dedicated team breaks the intervention into three stages: 1) PreVisit, 2) On Location, and 3) Departure. 

 
The PreVisit recommendations include making sure you: have planned time and location, are dressed appropriately, have everything you need and nothing valuable that is unnecessary, and a reliable and readied vehicle. 
No heels
Dress appropriately in a professional business manner with special attention to appropriate closed-toe, lower-heeled shoes, and clothes that do not hamper movement and departure.

Plan your trip using a reliable mapping program for arrival and departure in daylight hours, and ensure you have knowledge of the area/neighborhood concerns. Assure the vehicle you are taking is in good working order and has adequate fuel.

RaaWee Attendance+ includes a Mobile App with a powerful feature that assists with this route mapping.

When ready to leave for the Home Visit, let someone know where you are going or take someone with you. Double-check that you have your ID and all the documents you need ready and easily accessible.
 
Avoid taking valuables with you or leaving them visible in your parked car. If necessary, hide or lock them in the trunk prior to arriving at home visit site. Keep cell phone or RaaWee Attendance+ iApp with you – ready for recording, pictures or emergency calls as allowed by law. 
ID Card
Strategy

The application of this OODA Loop methodology is strongly recommended for all Home Visits.

Use the following practical application. Upon arrival prior to parking, drive by the home. If it looks unsafe, do not proceed with the home visit. Document the situation. When proceeding with the home visit, park selectively. Do not block anyone’s parking or driveway. Park in an area that will be easy to exit.

When approaching the home, check for other dangers such as pets, high fences or other obstacles, as well as people in or around the home.
Always avoid going inside the home. Conduct your business in a professional but timely manner from the porch or entry.
Home visits
Remain aware until AFTER Departure. Exit and leave the house as soon as possible. Document your visit once in a safe and highly visible area away from the home. Do not write notes or get on the phone in your parked car. 
 
And finally, let someone know you are back on campus or have completed the home visit, especially if you are not driving directly back to campus.
 

Conclusion

Teachers, parents, and policymakers share the responsibility to ensure that K-12 students achieve academic excellence at the highest possible level at the Abilene ISD. In all of this, developing strong parent-teacher partnerships is vital and may require a structured home visit. Home visits can play a vital role in the promotion of excellent academic results and behavior of the students. When needed, be prepared, be aware, be quick, and stay safe!
 

References

Goff, P. A. (2016, September 1). Addressing Classroom Bias to Improve Learning. In Schott Foundation Webinar Series.
Johnson, E. J. (2014). From the Classroom to the Living Room: Eroding Academic Inequities through Home Visits. Journal of School Leadership, 24, 357–385.

Attendance Awareness Communications

How to Use Social Media to Improve District Communications (Finalsite.com, 2018) tells us that “Social media has quickly earned itself at the top of the list for necessary communication tools … to improve their school-to-home communications.” The attendance improvement best practices and strategies they share for each social network are valuable for those districts just getting started and existing district users alike. These recommendations include which types of social media are better at reaching which audiences. 

Beaumont USD, CA logo

About Beaumont USD

Beaumont Unified School District (BUSD) does a great job in their use of social media, and their activities reflect real-time examples of these recommendations. Beaumont USD is situated in the San Gorgonio Pass, in Riverside County, California within a growing city of nearly 45,000 residents. BUSD operates seven elementary, two middle, and two high schools and serves 10,829 K-12 students and their families.

Beaumont USD shared its district strategies, including the successful social media outreach at the RaaWee Every Day Matters Summit, on November 15, 2019. View the entire event at Applying the “Mind in Boat” Teamwork & Focus to Attendance Improvement at Beaumont USD – Every Day Matters Summit 11.15.2019.

Beaumont USD uses Social Media for Successful Outreach

BUSD has applied a comprehensive communication social media strategy to improve the attendance at their schools. Through these tools, they share the great things happening at Beaumont USD on a daily basis. And it serves as cornerstone media in their attendance awareness campaigns. 
The social media tools narrate student success stories, employee recognitions and achievements, parent resources, school programs, services, and various opportunities, school board policies, and conventions; these are subjects of great interest that it shares with its community.
 
District and Community News are communicated through a variety means that include the BUSD website and social media accounts.
Attendance Day Challenge
The District social media accounts include both district-wide Facebook – BeaumontUSD – and Twitter – @Beaumont_SD – accounts. They also make use of Parent Square and Peach Jar which are their School-Home communication platforms. 
 
Although BUSD does not use Instagram, Snapchat or other accounts, these are also great opportunities to reach specific groups within the community. Check out best practice detail as previously referenced in How to Use Social Media to Improve District Communications (Finalsite.com, 2018) for additional ideas on audience-specific outreach.

They found that both Facebook and Twitter serve them well, but in different ways. They have more parents on their Facebook account and they find that the parents share the flyers and other information amongst one another. Twitter is great because the staff and school sites share their progress, awards, trophies, etc. Everyone appreciates visible recognition.

SES Classrooms
Weekly Bulletin Starlight Elementary

Consistent Meaningful Attendance Content is Key

The District creates an annual calendar with the contributions of parents, teachers, classified workers and administrators who serve on a calendar committee and use organized community meetings to solicit and incorporate user feedback. 
The posted content comes from flyers and other print materials that are provided to the BUSD Communications Officer for posting in both English and Spanish. Don’t forget the importance of addressing community diversity when reaching out using these newer media.
And a final best practice from the Beaumont USD team is the consistency in their social media use. They are committed to and consistent in keeping these accounts are up-to-date and the place to look for information. This keeps everyone involved and communications successful.
BUSD

For more information on Beaumont Unified  School District and all they are doing to reach and maintain their Attendance Goals for each student district-wide, check out our Every Day Matter Summit presentation by Christina Martinez at BUSD.

The Longstanding Problem of Chronic Absenteeism

Since the start of compulsory education in the US, absenteeism has been a problem, one that educators recognize as among the most persistent and critical challenges schools experience in the country (Gottfried & Hutt, 2019). However, it was not until 2016 that the US Department of Education published a report that created awareness of chronic absenteeism as a critical issue (U.S. Department of Education, 2016). 

All over the US, over 8 million students are chronically absent from schools and hence are academically at-risk. Chronic absence implies missing 10 percent or more of school days by students due to excused, unexcused absences and suspensions, and transformed themselves into third-graders who are unable to master reading; the sixth-graders failing in subjects and the ninth-graders dropping out from high schools. Research has shown that chronic absenteeism can impact academic performance in later grades and is a key early warning sign that the students are more likely to drop out of high school (Balfanz & Byrnes, 2012).

Detailing California’s Approach

The RaaWee EVERY DAY MATTERS SUMMIT, February 20, 2020, welcomed David Kopperud, Education Program Consultant at the CA Department of Education for a discussion of California’s Approach to Reducing Chronic Absenteeism & Dropout Rates. At this event, he shared the California strategies with 100 education leaders from more than 50 public school districts nationwide. View the entire conversation at California’s Approach to Reducing Chronic Absenteeism & Dropout Rates – Every Day Matters Summit – 2.20.2020. 

California's Approach to reducing chronic absenteeism
Watch Video Event

According to David Kopperud on chronic absenteeism, “You have kids with health problems and mental health problems; you have young children who are missing school for no fault of their own.” He further stated: Schools with high poverty levels tend to have higher rates of chronic absenteeism, and “one of the best ways we can address poverty is by figuring out what can we do to help these students get to school despite lack of transportation, health issues, trauma, and anxiety.”

The data released by education officials in California in 2017 showed that 10% of students in the state were chronically absent. As a result of the findings, California dramatically shifted its approach to school-absence away from punishing absenteeism, or unexcused absences, towards the identification of the rationales for all absences and offering support. This approach has been defined in a three-tier strategy for Prevention, Early Intervention, and Intensive Intervention.

The data also shows that 25% of foster children were chronically absent in the same year, in addition20% of students were of Native Americans and African-American origin. Mr. Kopperud emphasized their obvious need to monitor and address chronic absenteeism by Sub-Group, using more targeted services and resources. 

Three Tiers (MTSS) to Reduce Chronic Absenteeism in California

3 tiers to reduce chronic absence in schools
 
  • Prevention – Tier 1 focuses on ongoing Recognition/Reinforcement, broad Awareness, diligent Monitoring, and positive welcoming School Climate. It is intended to improve overall attendance and prevent chronic absence. 
  • Early Intervention – Tier 2, designed to address the needs of students missing 10% or more of school days, begin notifications, meetings, and services to students and guardians.
  • Missing 20% or more of school days triggers Intensive Intervention – Tier 3. These interventions target repeat offenders with the expertise, services, and resources of all SARB collaborative stakeholders and their respective agencies. 

Check out more information on California’s approach to: 

California SARB (School Attendance Review Board)

The School Attendance Review Board (SARB) is key to the California approach to reducing chronic absenteeism. Mandated by legislation, SARBs are comprised of stakeholders representing the various district and community services and resources for the chronically absent student and their family. School Attendance Review Board Handbook provides additional detail.

In California, SARBs are district-level teams that are composed of school and community members who meet regularly to diagnose and resolve persistent school attendance or behavior problems. The Model SARB Program identifies outstanding results-based school attendance improvement programs that provide comprehensive services to high-risk youth with school attendance or school behavior problems.

The State SARB makes recommendations to the State Superintendent for reducing chronic absenteeism rates and dropout rates in the state’s public schools. As part of its mandate, the State SARB makes annual recommendations regarding the needs of high-risk youth. The most recent recommendations include the following four improvements:

  1. Develop Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP) strategies for Groups with higher Chronic Absenteeism rates – again emphasizing the unique needs and resources by Sub-Group.
  2. Mandate small districts to obtain certification for their supervisors of attendance. This has not been previously required of smaller districts with personnel often “wearing many hats” within their district but has proven necessary for broader success.
  3. Mandate kindergarten attendance starting at enrollment.
  4. Advocate for the inclusion of grades 9-12 on the California School Dashboard, which is currently focused on elementary and middle grades.

The California Model SARB Recognition Program identifies and recognizes innovative results-based school attendance improvement programs at different levels. The programs serve as models for other SARBs across the state of California. The goal of California SARB is to reduce chronic absenteeism rate by 1% annually. Get full detail on the California Model SARB Recognition Program.

CADOE
David Kopperud Education Programs Consultant, CDE

About the Presenter

As the education programs consultant for Child Welfare and Attendance at California Department of Education (CDE), David Kopperud is the chairperson of the State School Attendance Review Board (State SARB) and the director of the CDE’s Model SARB Recognition Program.

A former English teacher, he first became interested in child welfare and attendance after noticing a large number of students who were not attending his classes. After working as coordinator of Child Welfare and Attendance in the Hemet Unified School District, he served as Child Welfare and Attendance Administrator and Director of Personnel and Pupil Services at Washington Unified School District before coming to work at the CDE.

David Kopperud, Education Programs Consultant
California Dept of Education
916.323.1028
cwa@cde.ca.gov

References

Balfanz, R., & Byrnes, V. (2012). Chronic Absenteeism: Summarizing What We Know From Nationally Available Data. Baltimore; Johns Hopkins University Center for Social Organization of Schools), 9. http://new.every1graduates.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/FINALChronicAbsenteeismReport_May16.pdf 

Gottfried, M.A., & Hutt, E.L. (Eds.) (2019). Introduction to Absent from School: Understanding and Addressing Student Absenteeism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press. https://www.hepg.org/hep-home/books/absent-from-school

U.S. Department of Education (2016). Chronic Absenteeism in the Nation’s Schools: A Hidden Educational Crisis. Washington, DC. https://www2.ed.gov/datastory/chronicabsenteeism.html