ATTENDANCE IMPROVEMENT PLAN TEMPLATE

PURPOSE:

All compulsory age students (those between 6-16) are required to attend school every day of the 180-day school year (based on Florida State Statute). Poor academic performance is associated with non-attendance. Schools will respond in a timely manner to prevent the development of patterns of non-attendance, which can be an indication of early signs of truancy.

A student has a“pattern of non-attendance” if he or she is absent from school a total of 30 hours (5 days) in any one marking period or 60 hours (10 days) within 90 days.

If a child has unexcused absences, excused absences without acceptable documentation, tardies or early sign-outs that add up to a “pattern of non-attendance,” and it is clear that the absences are a sign of early truant behavior, consequences may be imposed. Consequences may range, for an elementary age student, from having his or her report card withheld if he or she was in school for less than 25 days in a marking period, to the child’s parent/guardian being required to appear in court.

Middle and high school students who have a “pattern of non-attendance” may also face consequences. A student could be required to repeat a class; could be referred to Children In Need of Services (CINS) or Families In Need of Services (FINS); could have their driver’s license suspended or be prevented from obtaining a driver’s license; or the student’s parent/guardian could be required to appear in court.

IMPACT:

The impact of increased average daily attendance on student success may result in an increase in student academic success and positive social-emotional behavior.

The financial impact to the District can be significant as well.

PRELIMINARY WORK:

Create a committee of 4-5 people. You may include a school administrator, a classroom teacher, a guidance counselor, the school social worker, the attendance manager, and a parent/guardian. Make certain someone on the committee has expertise in data disaggregation.

STEP ONE: NEEDS ASSESSMENT:

Use the School Reports menu under attendance folder to examine your current attendance data. The ATT1004 - Average Daily Attendance report can prove to be most useful since data can be customized. Determine where you are and where you want to be and the space between. This difference spotlighted in the data is the area where you will focus your efforts.

Administering Student surveys to those who are habitually absent may be a good idea to help identify root causes as well. It is these few students that generate in excess of 20 absence days that have the highest negative contribution to your attendance rate.

STEP TWO: DEFINE GOAL:

Define your opportunities for improvement by examining the root causes of your issues. Make certain your team has a good understanding of your school data and focus on those areas that will produces the greatest results for the least amount of resources and create a SMART goal. An example is:

“By June of 2014 we will increase our average daily attendance rate by 1% from 85% to 86%," or "By June of 2014 we will reduce the number of students with more than 20 days absent by 50%."

STEP THREE: CREATE AN ACTION PLAN:

Develop the action steps that will help you meet your goals. Steps might include how will you engage your partners in assistance or how will your classroom teachers impact students as they are the first line of communication. You may want to target students who historically have attendance concerns for more individualized interventions or look to your current attendance plan and update based on the results of your needs assessment.

You should be able answer the following questions:

  1. How will you notify your community and have them be part of the solution?
  2. What specific interventions will you offer to students with a pattern of non-attendance?
  3. What specific interventions will you offer to parents of students with a pattern of non-attendance (advise, resources, referral to social worker, etc)?
  4. How will you account for students late to school?

According to School Board Policy 5.5:

The interventions may include, but need not be limited to:

1. Frequent communication between the teacher and family;

2. Changes in the learning environment;

3. Mentoring;

4. Student counseling;

5. Tutoring, including peer tutoring;

6. Placement into different classes;

7. Evaluation for alternative education programs;

8. Referral to other agencies for family services

STEP FOUR: MONITOR PROGRESS:

Assign members of the team to monitor all parts of the program and schedule monthly meetings to review progress.

STEP FIVE: REVIEW SUCCESS AND MODIFY PLAN AS BASED ON RESULTS:

Carefully review success of program using a data based decision-making process. Ensure the committee meets quarterly, modify as necessary based on analysis of the monitoring data.