On Aug. 19, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond was joined by other state education leaders and Attendance Works for a press conference at Williamson Elementary in the Folsom Cordova Unified School District to announce that California is on track and committed to reduce chronic absenteeism by 50 percent by 2030. It also marked the release of the California Attendance Guide, an online resource created with Attendance Works and the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence, that shows how recent successes in reducing chronic absenteeism can be turned into actionable strategies for local educational agencies statewide. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have joined Attendance Works’ national chronic absenteeism challenge.
“Due to historic investments in student supports and family engagement, California has cut TK–12 chronic absenteeism levels by one-third, from 30 percent in 2022 to 20 percent in 2024. We are on track and committed to reduce chronic absence by 50 percent over five years,” Thurmond said. “Our community schools approach is working: When we address the needs of the whole family, our students are able to show up to school.”
The attendance guide will aid in achieving this ambitious reduction by attempting to strengthen collaborative efforts and integrate three priority approaches:
- Health, well-being and safety: Students attend school when they are physically and emotionally healthy as well as when they feel safe and supported.
- Family engagement: Students attend school when they and their families are actively engaged as partners in advancing learning and overcoming barriers to getting to school.
- Student connectedness: Students attend school when they are connected to a caring adult and peers, engaged in prosocial activities and feel a sense of belonging. Attention to these three priority approaches is integrated throughout this guidance.
“Improving attendance is a complex effort that can be bolstered by leadership, teams, and strategic action at multiple levels: schools, districts, and county offices of education,” the guide states. “There is no simple solution. While schools determine what happens on the ground to advance a multi-tiered approach that begins with prevention, districts can contribute a sustainable, data-informed, and high-quality approach across schools. At the same time, county offices of education can help ensure that districts are prepared to equip their schools to monitor data, adopt consistent attendance policies, and help secure partnerships and resources that may be needed for interventions.”
The guide notes it is meant to complement, not replace, the School Attendance Review Board (SARB) Road Map for Improved School Attendance and Behavior.
It is divided into sections for schools, districts and county offices of education.
Schools
The guide recommends a team approach to addressing chronic absenteeism that emphasizes a multi-tiered strategy that begins with prevention and early intervention by promoting health, well-being, positive conditions for learning, safety, family engagement and student connectedness. Everyone in the school — including families, teachers and students — has a role to play in improving attendance and can often offer insights about why students miss school as well as co-create solutions.
Teams should be data-focused, looking at school-level data to assess trends, disaggregated data to see patterns that might occur by grade level or student group, and individual student data for those who miss 10 percent or more of school days to identify root causes. The guide also emphasizes the importance of measuring progress toward school goals intermittently throughout the year and adjusting strategies if movement is not being made.
Districts
Efforts to improve attendance can be accelerated by leadership from the superintendent and school board to align policy and support consistent school attendance practices. The guide recommends seven potential key actions that district leaders can take to align local policy and practice:
- Designate a cross-departmental district team to focus on consistent attendance.
- Define roles and responsibilities for attendance.
- Communicate why attendance matters and how it aligns with other district priorities (including Local Control and Accountability Plan goals).
- Consider the collection and review of actionable chronic absence data.
- Promote consistent attendance practices across schools and consider how to help implement key actions.
- Examine district and community resources that may help promote health, well-being, safety, family engagement and student connectedness, and assess the availability of these resources across all school communities.
- Prioritize support to elementary, middle and high schools with the largest number of chronically absent students.
COEs
As part of the Statewide System of Support, COEs can play a crucial role in addressing chronic absenteeism by partnering with local school districts and community agencies to implement interventions and support students. COEs can support districts in using data to identify attendance issues and deliver early interventions aligned with a Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) framework.
The guide provides real-world examples of key roles that COEs may play in maximizing student attendance and engagement:
- Data collection and reporting: Butte County Office of Education provides strategies for improving attendance and Santa Clara COE has created a dashboard that includes chronic absence indicators to help districts monitor student attendance patterns.
- Technical assistance: COEs can assist districts and schools in integrating attendance into existing program structures, such as MTSS and Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, and provide training and resources to district and school staff on how to create positive learning environments and address specific attendance issues.
- Interventions: COEs may be able to help districts address the unique needs of particular student populations with high levels of chronic absence; for example, foster youth, students experiencing homelessness, or students with disabilities. For example, Yolo COE has partnered with AmeriCorps to create a mentorship program aimed at increasing academic engagement and achievement for students in the foster care system and/or experiencing homelessness. COEs may also support the establishment and operation of School Attendance Review Boards.
The guide also covers the different ways to use attendance data shares resources — including CSBA’s brief on using chronic absence data to drive student improvement — and defines terminology and related laws.
