Caitlin Churchill, Possip’s Community Director, provides tips to maximize attendance in your schools!
“When the going gets tough, the tough get going,” is a motto sometimes used to celebrate kids with perfect attendance.
Modern day expectations and laws reinforce the message that every kid should be in school every day possible. However, historically that hasn’t always been the case. History tells the tale of kids staying home to offset families lacking resources, zoning and discriminatory regulations. This has required people to attend schools far from their homes, and unsafe and time-consuming transportation to school, not to mention unwelcome environments for many.
It’s not surprising that people need support and motivation to get to school. It’s not surprising that when things get tough (insert: unsafe, unkind, inconvenient), people might not show up or lean into difficult situations.
There are real tangible factors influencing attendance – physical and mental health, transportation, safety and communication – and Possip’s new Attendance Checks help districts and schools uncover which factors have become barriers to individual families. As you may or may not expect, families are still identifying COVID as the top barrier to missing school.
It begs the question: how do districts and schools …
1) more fully understand and address barriers?
2) shift mindsets so that families, kids and teachers agree it is important to show up for school?
This January 24th, Possip will gather with educators to talk about improving attendance. We know this is a situation where multiple solutions are needed.
Let’s consider a broad framework for encouraging attendance.
A: Understand barriers to attendance
B: Remove tangible barriers to attendance
C: Communicate about shared values related to attending school
D: Align with families on expectations and requirements
Here are five areas of barriers to consider with families, staff and students routinely throughout the year.
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There may be logistical barriers related to a caregiver’s ability to get a student to school such as the ability to afford transportation or help a student get to a bus. Parents may have competing commitments with work or caretaking and are unable to focus on logistics for a school-aged child.
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There may be communication barriers that influence whether a parent is fully informed about attendance expectations or able to communicate needing assistance. This could be due to cultural or language differences. It’s possible that families have also received conflicting information or even heard conflicting mindsets toward attendance from their teachers, children or fellow parents.
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There may be health barriers that are either physical or mental impacting the student or family members responsible for getting the student to school. There may also be concerns about illnesses spreading in school, or that a school environment is impacting a student’s emotional well-being.
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There may be safety barriers. It was illuminating in the November conversation between Possip in educators on school safety when former school counselor Malené Dixon, Senior Counselor & Student Leadership Advisor at KIPP Sunnyside, said, “If students don’t feel safe, they aren’t going to school.” Similarly, if parents don’t feel their students are safe, they aren’t going to send them to school. Addressing school safety – including bullying and disciplinary concerns – will impact how families and staff feel about being present.
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Last, there may be different mindsets about the importance and value of attending school. These mindsets may be determined by the families’ level of engagement with teachers and administrators, cultural points of view, or even how students and families feel about their academic progress and the value of time spent in class. In these and other ways, mindsets or belief could become a barrier to attendance.
Then, once you have a practice of uncovering these ever-shifting barriers for each individual family, you can address needs one-by-one in real time.
Here are some for removing barriers.
(Peer educators will talk through their favorite approaches to addressing attendance barriers on January 24th and you are invited – RSVP now to join the conversation!)
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Addressing transportation barriers: Possip reporter Virginia Williams gives helpful insights on tackling car line at your school.
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Addressing communication barriers: Possip Reporter Savannah Staley shares communication plans and templates (see #7).
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Addressing health barriers: The pandemic taught us a lot about establishing and communicating safe health practices in schools.
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Addressing safety barriers: Possip CEO & Founder Shani Dowell provides a framework for safe schools and ways to communicate about safety.
Finally, it’s important to emphasize the final two aspects of the framework – communicating the value of attending school and aligning with families, staff and students on expectations and requirements. Aligning, like giving and receiving feedback, is a two-way street. Signing a handbook or statement of intent is not aligning. Alignment is active, personal, and affirming.
How does that show up?
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Active – First, understand that barriers to attendance may be temporary and changing, or permanent. Use multiple methods and frequent, routine opportunities to talk about how attendance is going. Is it easy? Is it hard? Are these barriers? Use surveys like Possip Attendance Checks, implementation of structured conversations at parent-teacher conferences and in staff meetings, newsletters, teacher letters, and more.
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Personal – Second, make attendance a personal matter. While school culture and shared values will greatly impact both attendance and future enrollment – and we have tips on that from Monchiere’ Holmes-Jones, the CEO and Founder of MOJO Marketing + PR – the solutions for addressing barriers need to be considered case-by-case.
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Affirming – Last, affirm that families, staff, administration and students are aligned and mindsets are mutually aligned. This can be accomplished through surveys like Possip Attendance Checks and receiving feedback that expectations and requirements are indeed understood, shared and valued.
We look forward to seeing you on January 24th when educators talk more about identifying and addressing attendance barriers and improving attendance!
The post Tips on Maximizing Attendance in Your Schools appeared first on Possip | Engagement Platform | School Feedback Survey.
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