SA KIDS Attend to Win Attendance Tool Kit

Transcription

1 SA KIDS Attend to Win Attendance Tool Kit This Tool Kit supports the SA Kids Attend to Win attendance awareness campaign.

2 Table of Contents for Attendance Toolkit 1. Attendance Toolkit Overview 3 a Chronic Non-Attendance Cohort Data Timeline 4 b. SA Kids Attend To Win program overview 5 i. Elementary School ii. Secondary School c. General Purpose and Guidelines 8 i. What is it? ii. What s the point? 2. Identify the Chronically Non-attending students 9 a. Assessing and Monitoring Attendance 10 b. Recording and Measuring Attendance Data 10 i. Weekly Meetings 3. Reach out to those students and families 11 a. Appointing an Attendance Team 12 i. What makes an effective attendance team? ii. Who should participate in an attendance team? iii. What should they do? b. Making an Action Plan 13 i. Identify target students ii. Identify target Success Mentors iii. Secure a support system for Success Mentors c. Creating a school culture that promotes good attendance 15 i. School-wide Events and Initiatives 1. Attendance Rallies 2. Morning Greeting 3. VIP Lounges 4. Support the families with the resources they need 18 a. Engaging the family and the community i. Parent Success Summit and Resource Fair ii. Community Partnership Program (CPP) 5. Stay in touch frequently 21 a. Communicate with parents regularly and include the positive

3 6. Reward the Students and their families 23 a. Positive reinforcement systems 24 i. Why incentives are important ii. For the individual 1. Teacher provided incentives 2. Administration, PTA and Booster-offered incentives iii. For the parents and community 7. Attendance Passport 2

4 3 Attendance Toolkit Overview

5 4 Chronic Non-Attendance Cohort Data Timeline Please refer to this chart for the data timeline of the attendance cohort. Date(s) November 15, 2013 January 31, 2014 May 16, 2014 Data Collection Action List of students who have been absent at least 6 days (excused or unexcused) sent to administrator of program. Use the form provided on P16Plus Website. You should make sure your school name is on the form and you have numbered the students who you are following. The form is entitled BOY (Beginning of Year) Entitle the form MOY (Middle of Year) Using the names from the first list, do the following: Students who are still being absent, plug in their absences with reasons; Students who have improved and are no longer on the list, put improved by their names; Students who have withdrawn from school, put withdrawn by their names; Add new students to the list if they have 10 absences (excused or unexcused) at this point in the year Same as January directions. This list is entitled EOY (End of Year) It s from this list that we will gather most of our data, so please make sure that you mark if students improve, withdraw, or remain on the list. At this point, please list the various interventions that you ve tried throughout the year. Make sure you have listed the reasons for the absences because we also need that information.

6 5 Elementary P16Plus Council of Bexar County Attend to Win Attendance Program The positive approach to chronic absenteeism Mission: Our mission in the SA Kids Attend to Win program is to focus the light on chronic absenteeism so that all students can benefit from the learning schools have to offer. The Program: The SA Kids Attend to Win has five parts: Identify: By November 15, 2013 identify the students who have absent six days in the school year and create a data excel spreadsheet with these students names (Form at p16plus.org). This will be your target list. Reach-out: After identifying the students, reach out to the parents and/or the students with the following message: What are your hopes and dreams for your student? Once they ve answered that, say: We can help make those hopes and dreams come true if you bring your student to school. Then ask why they ve been absent so much. Record the answers. Support: Once the parents have given us the reasons for the absences, we create individual support for each family. This can be accomplished by working with all the community resources. Stay in Touch: This is not a one touch model. The families that have attendance issues need to be followed on a regular basis. This could happen with sending encouragement when the child has been there for a week. Reward: Reward incremental success as well as long term success. The toolkit that is part of this playbook gives many suggestions on what these rewards can be.

7 6 P16Plus Council of Bexar County Secondary Attend to Win Attendance Program The positive approach to chronic absenteeism Mission: Our mission in the SA Kids Attend to Win program is to focus the light on chronic absenteeism so that all students can benefit from the learning schools have to offer. The Program: The SA Kids Attend to Win has five parts: Identify: By November 15, 2013 identify the students who have absent six days in the school year and create a data excel spreadsheet with these students names (Form at p16plus.org). This will be your target list. Follow dates to collect data on the timeline. Reach-out: After identifying the students, reach out to the students before the parents. With secondary students, relationship is key. They will respond to someone they trust, someone they believe cares about them. Some suggested ideas to open with: "We would love to see you at school more days, what can we do to help make that happen?" What s keeping you from coming to school? What s important to you right now? We miss you when you re not here. How can I help to get you to school? Once they start talking, brainstorm some ideas with them to help them get to school. In middle school, contact of the parent may be needed to address what is going on, and that contact should be positive and helpful so they want to support your efforts. Record the reasons they give for missing school. Support: Once the parents and students have given us reasons for the absences, we create individual support for each student/family. This can be accomplished by working with all the community resources available to the school.

8 7 Stay in Touch: This is not a one touch model. The families and students who have attendance issues need to be followed on a regular basis. This could happen by sending encouragement letters when the child has been there for a week and then following up with some type of incentive. Reward: Reward incremental success as well as long term success. The toolkit that is part of this playbook gives many suggestions on what these rewards can be.

9 8 General Purpose and Guidelines What is it? This toolkit is a compilation of successful tools and tips for monitoring and encouraging great attendance, including expectations and guidelines, primary responsibilities, tools & tips for success, and best practices from years past. What s the point? School attendance is a simple, easily understood measure of student performance. One strategy for improving attendance is engaging students, parents, educators and community members in a campaign that offers positive rewards for getting to school on-time.

10 9 Identify the Chronically Non-Attending Students

11 10 Assessing and Monitoring Attendance It is good practice to look at school-level data daily so that big dips in attendance are recognized right away. School wide data can also be viewed in the aggregate for groups like grade levels or boys/girls, either weekly or monthly. Student-level data is the most accurate way to track attendance in a school. Knowing who is at risk for being chronically absent spurs specific actions: outreach to parents, plans for re-entry with guidance staff (if consecutive days have been missed), consultation with classroom teachers to have a plan for re-connecting the student to current lesson plans, and daily greetings and informal check-ins to be sure attendance does not slip again when the student returns. The Attendance Team members can use data to see if incentives or other programs have impacted attendance (See page 12 on Attendance Teams). Recording and Measuring Outcomes from Attendance Data To reduce chronic absenteeism, it is recommended that everyone knows the goal: What is your attendance rate and where do you want it to be? Use data to track and report on your outcomes. Look at the students who missed 20+ days last year, your previous Target List. Are they missing fewer days this year? Will they end the year missing 0-19 days? Look at your school s chronic absenteeism rate last year, the percentage of students in school last year who missed 20+ days. Will you decrease that rate this year? Share these data checks with Success Mentors, students and families and celebrate successes. By November 15, 2013 identify the students who have absent six days in the school year and create a data excel spreadsheet with these students names (Form on jump drive). This will be your target list for this school year. Weekly Meetings The Principal and the Attendance Team should meet weekly with school staff, Success Mentors, and community based organizations to review school-wide attendance data and track chronically absent students, diagnose absences, and direct appropriate support to the student or family. The Attendance Team should use existing reports to guide discussion with team members on progress towards attendance goals.

12 11 Reach Out to Those Students and Families

13 12 Appointing an Attendance Team What makes an effective attendance team? Attendance Teams are successful when they involve the right people and maintain a clear sense of purpose and responsibilities. School and district administrators should determine, based upon local conditions, if a new entity needs to be established to monitor attendance data and practice or if the work can be successfully incorporated into the responsibilities of an existing committee. Who should participate in the attendance team? To function effectively, an Attendance Team needs a designated chairperson/facilitator and members such as the principal who can understand and analyze attendance data. Ideally, teams should include not only school staff but also representatives from other community agencies who can help with reaching out to students and their parents, as well as offering resources for overcoming barriers to attendance. What should they do? Attendance Teams have a two-fold responsibility: first, they are charged with looking at individual students who are chronically absent and ensuring their needs are met using all available resources; second, they monitor what is happening overall for all students and student sub-groups at a school site. Attendance Teams can carry out both levels of work by clearly defining when they will work at each level. For example, they can divide a meeting into two parts or alternate the meeting focus. At the individual student level, they should: Examine every week the list of students with attendance issues to ensure that each student receives appropriate supports. Look at other data (grades, test scores, behavioral referrals, health issues, etc.) to develop a full picture of what is happening in a student s life, especially for those with more severe attendance problems. Use data on attendance and chronic absence to determine the nature and intensity of supports. Supports can range from a call home or a truancy letter to a more intensive intervention and case management process. Review outcomes of prior interventions to determine if supports were effective. At the school level, they should: Help communicate the importance of attendance to the entire school staff and clearly spell out how each staff member can work with the Attendance Team and help students who are chronically absent. Work with the administration to establish positive expectations for good attendance with students and their families. This includes creating a culture of attendance as well as defining what happens when a student misses school. This

14 13 may include tiered interventions to provide needed support as well as consequences. Examine trend information and unusual attendance trends and patterns every quarter. Compile data across individual students and multiple data sources to unpack common barriers to attendance, and then forge partnerships to address those challenges. Assess the impact of programmatic efforts such as attendance incentives on reducing rates of chronic absence Making an Action Plan The interest and encouragement of a Success Mentor can bring chronically absent students back to school. The approach is supported by fifty years of research documenting that children who have consistent access to caring adults have better outcomes, including higher education and lower incidents of at-risk behaviors. Identify Target Students Use the student level data to know who missed 20 or more days last year. Prioritize other students for interventions, for example, incoming ninth graders. Identify target Success Mentors SA Kids Attend to Win schools can start an Internal Success Mentor program. Internal (Staff) Success Mentors are teachers, cluster teachers, guidance counselors, parent coordinators, and other school staff who become a special go-to person for a few students. These Mentors adopt 3-5 students, depending on their other role(s) in the school. They use lunch or advisory to connect with mentees. The success mentor provides one-on-one support and encouragement for chronically absent students, and schools offer programs that address the students needs and interests. External Success Mentors come from city inter-agency partners, youth development organizations like after school providers or youth counseling programs, and the numerous organizations that are already in the schools. For instance, City Year and Communities in Schools are both great partners in this work. Peer-to-Peer Success Mentors are older students who receive training and support from organizations with experience in service learning or youth counseling. Be Clear about the role of the Success Mentor in the School No matter what kind of Success Mentor, it is their responsibility to link students to school, and students and parents to services that address the causes of the absences: Mentors greet students in the morning and call their homes if they are absent.

15 14 In one-on-one or group meetings weekly throughout the school year, Mentors identify, and in some cases, create activities that appeal to their mentees needs and interests to increase their engagement with school. Mentors diagnose the root causes of mentees absences and collaborate with others in the school to intervene with services and resources as necessary. In addition, the Success Mentor role includes: Keeping notes about their students attendance patterns, needs and interventions and acting strategically on the data they keep. Celebrating attendance improvements Attending (or being represented at) weekly meetings (see pg. 10) and sharing what works and new challenges Communicating regularly with mentees families, connecting them to services as needed and reinforcing positive messages about school attendance and academic performance. PROMISING PRACTICES With Success Mentors, the students knew someone else was checking in on them. The students loved the meetings and the attention. Now, students come to the Mentors and tell them why they have been absent. The students really want the Mentors to know they are trying. Teachers, initially somewhat hesitant to take on the Success Mentor role, have become the program s biggest cheerleaders. Teachers were in the cafeteria early in the morning so as not to miss meeting and greeting mentees. Because of the Success Mentors, students want to get to school. Parents shared that when a child is eager to go to school It makes it easier for me in the morning when it s so stressful just trying to get everyone dressed and out of the house on time. Secure a support system for Success Mentors Success Mentors cannot make the difference on their own. Where the programs worked best, Success Mentors were introduced to the entire school staff and had a key staff member as a liaison. Success Mentors knew where to go for space to meet with students, and had access to computers and a phone, and to data about their students. PROMISING PRACTICES Information gathered by Success Mentors was tremendously helpful to the Guidance Counselor and the Advisors. Parents were often more responsive to Success Mentors than to school staff. Some teachers and security staff approached Success Mentors about referring additional students. To support Success Mentor, the Attendance Teachers provided data, the secretary helped with procurement for incentives, and teachers communicated during family group time/advisories, or other periods when they didn t have a class.

16 15 Creating a school culture that promotes good attendance Avoid recognizing only perfect attendance. Perfect attendance is not always the goal since it is not wise to encourage children to come to school when they re sick. Students should be rewarded for improved attendance, not just perfect records. Offering weekly perfect attendance awards can allow students to still have a chance to succeed the next week if they are absent. School-wide Events and Initiatives Attendance Rallies Attendance Rallies are events for our targeted grades that emphasize and explain the importance of getting to school on time and consistently. They are called rallies because they are literally events that you and your faculty will host during a designated time of the school day (e.g. lunchtime, after school, or possibly a special assembly). It is best practice to lead three of these attendance rallies over the course of the year: one at the beginning of the year in the month of November, one upon return from the winter break in January, and another at the end of the year in the month of May. Keep in mind that the outline and purpose of each rally depends on your school s attendance focus for the year/month/quarter (e.g., decrease tardiness for the second quarter). During the rally you will also explain a positive reinforcement system that you and your team will uphold throughout the year. Having a positive reinforcement system, which are also known as recognition systems are necessary as this becomes a daily/weekly/monthly reminder to students of the importance of why they are coming to school and coming in on time. Morning Greeting Through the daily Morning Greeting, and in conjunction with other efforts, this activity seeks to support regular school attendance while accelerating the development of capable, committed learners who are school-connected and community-minded. Using different strategies, the morning greeting can help to create an environment that welcomes students, teachers, and administrators for a great day of learning while encouraging a climate of connectedness among the school community. Students who feel safe, feel supported, and have a sense of belonging at school are more likely to regularly attend school. The Morning Greeting is an opportunity to foster positive school culture and climate while encouraging regular school attendance. Morning Greeting will be different at each school. Depending on the space, school, and students, it's important that you find what fits best. Remember which grades you are gearing towards and personalize your morning greeting to be age appropriate.

17 16 Activities: The most effective practices seem to fall into four categories. These include: Whole School Greeting Morning Program Clubs (VIP Lounges) Attendance Recognition and Appreciation Systems Whole School Greeting: In Whole School Greeting, designated leaders greet students and school faculty as they enter the school building. This may include elements of power greeting such as chants, dances and songs, or simply involve saying hello and checking in with students and faculty as they enter the building. Morning Program: Appointed leaders are able to provide a Morning Assembly (Program) for all students. This may include elements of a unity rally (like Daily Briefing, Word of the Day, Quote of the Day, etc.) This may also include reciting the school pledge or creed and school announcements. Clubs: Another popular approach is to establish clubs, or stations, and engage students in these over the course of the year. The Clubs are typically established in the following areas: Academic: Designated coordinators can provide homework support or structured (and fun!) academic games for students to play like trivia, Sudoku, or cross word puzzles [Ideal for teams who don t have outdoor space to provide Morning Greeting or for sites located in climates that prohibit outdoor activity during the winter months.] Enrichment: Designated coordinators can plan art projects or have board games and craft activities available for students. [Ideal for teams who don t have outdoor space to provide Morning Greeting or for sites located in climates that prohibit outdoor activity during the winter months] Physical Activity: Designated coordinators can lead fitness class (aerobics, yoga, etc.) or organize and lead active games (basketball, four square, etc.) Drop in: Designated coordinators make themselves available to check in with students in the hallways, cafeteria or hold office hours in the classroom or designated area where students are welcome to drop in and talk. If school breakfast is provided, designated coordinators can eat breakfast with students who arrive early and check in with them about their day. [Ideal for teams who don t have outdoor space to provide Morning Greeting or for sites located in climates that prohibit outdoor activity during the winter months.] Attendance Recognition and Appreciation Systems: Teams often also create an Incentive System for the first [agreed upon number] of students that enter the school building on a given day. Students may be given raffle tickets to redeem a prize at the end of the month or earn entry to a monthly party. Remember, that the morning is for your team to set an exciting and fun tone for the students' school day. This is the perfect opportunity for students to receive positive interactions and start the day off strong.

18 17 VIP Lounges VIP Lounges are a celebration to acknowledge growth and achievement in our students across the ABC s. Only the Very Inspirational People at your school can come to VIP Lounges, meaning that only those who meet the specific qualifications can attend. Attendance: Perfect Attendance!! (to be determined by the Attendance Team using attendance data) Behavior: Lucky folks will be chosen by their homeroom teacher. Only those chosen students will be allowed to the VIP Lounge. Course Performance: Students with either shown growth or academic prowess are invited to join the team for this VIP lounge. These nominations are determined by teacher recommendations. VIP Lounges are creative outlets for most teams. Make it as snazzy as you want to! Remember that you want kids to want to come to this VIP lounge and that it s a privilege to attend. Let your creative minds run wild and make it a fun, safe environment for them to enjoy their accomplishments. Each school can decide how many times a year they would like to have VIP lounges, e.g., once every semester, once a month, quarterly. (Metrics for selection may vary by school as needed.) Things to keep in mind: Make each VIP Lounge different, so students want to continue to come back. Having a theme will help make your VIP Lounge fun and transformative, an exciting experience. Publicly display who the winners are for VIP Lounge. This can be announcements over the intercom in the morning, a bulletin board in the hallway, or a VIP wall displaying the students profile picture and signature. Send invitations to the students inviting them to come to VIP Lounge. Include RSVPs; allow them to wear a special VIP Lounge pin or badge. Invite teachers, the principal, and other school staff to attend. Give the students goodie bags/take-a-ways/mementos, so they will never forget their experience in the VIP Lounge. Bring the real ambiance of a VIP Lounge come to life!

19 18 Support the Families with the Resources They Need

20 19 Engaging the family and the community Communicating with families about attendance is critical 90% attendance isn t good enough and attending school regularly boosts achievement. Schools can engage existing communitybased organizations (like after school programs) and partner with other community centers to reach families and share the message about student attendance. These partners can be asked to make specific outreach to chronically absent students and talk about good attendance with the families they see. Host a Parent Success Summit and Resource Fair The events help to engage and inform families about the importance of good attendance (including laws and the link between attendance and school performance) and the school s attendance programs. For a successful summit: Have a performance by students or an awards ceremony. Make it part of the first Parents Association meeting, Open School Night, or another school function that parents traditionally attend. Have computer(s) set up, so parents can log into their respective school websites and see their student s profile including attendance last year and this year. Include activities geared toward grandparents who are raising grandchildren or single parents. Create a personalized folder for each parent, with their child s attendance data and a resource list of community resources. Principals use the second part, the Resource Fair, where organizations provide information about services such as housing, health care, and other resources, as an opportunity to connect with local community providers. PROMISING PRACTICES The Parent Summit featured meaningful discussions about student support and best practices. The parents were excited to know that the Mayor's Office was so involved in helping support their efforts with their children. The summits helped to get parents to be more aware of their children's attendance/lateness record. The school recognized parents by presenting them with certificates as well. (See also page 24 on positive reinforcement systems.)

21 20 Form a Community Partnership Program (CPP) In many other ways, schools can connect chronically absent students and their families to Community Based Organizations (CBOs) that offer critical services. Of course, they can be part of the Parent Success Summit and are invited to the Weekly Student Success Summits. They bring information for immigrant families, about day care and other services, and about supports for foster care families. A focus on attendance is a good way to start the conversation with CBOs in their neighborhoods and to local businesses, too. Action Plan for Family and Community Engagement Select date and time for the Parent Success Summit & Resource Fair (in first 8 weeks) Date & Time Who are the community partners you want to invite to your Parent Summit? Who from your staff will be the point person for the Summit, taking responsibility for inviting community resources and organizing the event? Identify resources in your community (CBOs, ACS, CPP, etc) with potential for collaboration. Where are there opportunities for strategic partnerships? If you have an afterschool program or other programs/services at your school run by partner organizations, how can you engage them in the fight against chronic absences? Could they target chronically absent students for their programs? Help spread the message about good attendance?

22 Stay In Touch Frequently 21

23 22 Communicate with families regularly- and include the positive Schools or Success Mentors call home when students are absent every day. They set aside enough time to discuss why the child was absent and explore solutions. Tips for successful morning calls to families of absent students: Try and ask what the parents hope and dreams are for the child, and then remind them that you can reach those goals if the child is in school. Try to find the hook focusing on the child s strength or a positive action. Connect the family to any needed services and invite them to school activities. When personal calls are not possible, make the most of autodial systems. A message to inform parents of absences, lateness, or to offer congratulations for attendance improvement can be recorded by the Principal, guidance counselor, or Success Mentor. Parents/guardians pay more attention to a message delivered by a person they know. How can the attendance message move beyond the phone call, intercom and bulletin boards? Partners in your school, whether after school providers, School-Based Health Center, or youth counselors become part of the outreach, addressing attendance issues with the families they already serve. Other community centers can be asked to share the message about student attendance. PROMISING PRACTICES The Success Mentor called to make sure the student was getting ready 40 minutes before school started and greeted him when he arrived. Twice a month, the Mentor sent the mother a postcard with his weekly attendance. He missed just two days this year. Through their special relationships, Success Mentors were good at getting updated telephone and home address information from the students. The holiday party with the PTA was held in the neighborhood with the highest concentration of parents of chronically absent students. These parents were not coming to the school so the school brought the event to the families community. Mentors developed a walking school bus program. Data showed that students who missed school had younger siblings. The school called the parents/guardians, and asked if it would help to have folks walk their kids to school. They arranged for a meeting place. Parents got kids to that spot, rather than all the way to school.

24 23 Reward the Students and Their Families Reward timeliness not just showing up to school. Since tardiness also has an adverse impact on learning, many schools only count on-time attendance toward rewards.

25 24 Positive Reinforcement Systems For every single negative comment a student hears, it requires 4 positive comments to combat the negative effects. Depending on the school and your team, you may choose different initiatives for both students at individual, classroom, and/or grade level. Choose the reward system you feel that would be most effective for your school and for your team to implement. (Keep in mind the different types of rewards: intrinsic and extrinsic.) Good attendance helps kids succeed in school and bolster their self-esteem. Improving attendance requires a comprehensive approach that goes beyond sanctions and includes incentives. Incentives don t need to be costly. Simple rewards recognition from peers and the school through certificates or assemblies, extra recess time, homework passes or even dancing in the hallways go a long way toward motivating students. Ask students what they consider a meaningful incentive. Why Incentives are Important Interclass competition is a powerful motivator. The sense of competition between classes (with rewards like a party for the class with the best monthly attendance) can be a powerful motivator. Such strategies encourage students to feel accountable to each other for attending class. Implement incentives school wide. To foster a culture of attendance, every classroom needs to participate!! Incentives could consist of: Lunch with A principal, faculty member, or elected official (the possibilities are endless). The class that had the most students come to school a consecutive number of days or on-time will receive this benefit. First to Lunch Bunch The classroom that exhibits perfect attendance for 10 consecutive days will have preference over the other classrooms to receive their lunch first during the lunch period. Spelling out Perfect Attendance Each day that the classroom has perfect attendance, the class will earn a letter to attempt to spell out the words Perfect Attendance (this should be a display in the classroom that students can easily view and track their progress). Once they spell the word they will receive a prize.

26 25 Popcorn parties A celebration for students who have perfect attendance using popcorn (instead of pizza) Attendance race A competition between classrooms to determine what classroom can accumulate the highest number of consecutive days of perfect attendance. The winning classroom will receive a prize. Perfect Attendance Week A challenge to have students attend school all days of a week Double Points Day Students earn double the points for having perfect attendance on a particular day. This is especially encouraged during time periods when student attendance is known to be low (e.g., days leading up to the winter break). Principal Challenge The classroom with a certain amount of days will be able to participate in some activity with the school s principal (e.g., do something fun and exciting with the principal). For the Individual: Teacher provided incentives: Precise Praise (Intrinsic rewards) Articulate to your student what is expected of them and WHY it is important for them to arrive on time and prepared for class. You re here today and I am happy to see you. Nice job being on time today. You arrived 4 days on time and prepared for class. That is an improvement from last week and that awesome! I am proud of you. These can be communicated verbally in the morning or during phone calls home but also through personal Praise Postcards sent by their teacher home, or an idea could be to deliver them by placing them in a special brown paper bag each student decorates on the first day of school and leaves inside the classroom in a designated You ve got mail area. Coupons/Tickets/Raffles (Extrinsic rewards) Having a reward system specifically connected to attendance is extremely important. If a student comes to school every day and on-time for a week (or any number of days) he/she can earn points or tokens which can be used to redeem a prize of some sort. - Token systems - Points systems - Sticker chart systems

27 26 Prizes can be in-kind items from a local store: Pencils Pens Book Marks Stickers Book Covers Posters *Feel free to ask the students what they would like and personalize prizes to their preference Or prizes can be specific rewards such as: earning a lunch with your favorite faculty member, extra recess time, computer time, or PE time, free homework passes, first-in-line privileges for lunch or dismissal, team dancing in the hallways, name on the attendance wall, chance to act as the teacher s assistant for a designated period of time etc. EX. Middle School: In-kind school supplies for a classroom store for students to redeem prizes. EX. High School: Raffling off or providing preference/reserved seating to students who exhibit good attendance at school events (e.g. fashion show, talent show, etc.). EX. High School: In-kind a limo ride to school, the student with perfect attendance can arrive to school in high-style in front of their friends or to the prom or dance event. Administration, PTAs and Boosters provided incentives: Recognition of good attendance during morning announcements Certificate/ award at student assembly Breakfast/ lunch with the principal, superintendent, school board president, mayor, etc. School supplies, e.g., pencil with logo Food coupons redeemable in school cafeteria Smoothie/pizza party for class with best attendance School money for the school store Choice of donated product (movie, tickets, gift certificate) Traveling trophy for grade-level homeroom with best monthly attendance Attendance T-shirts/hats/buttons Age-appropriate rewards for most improved attendance Parking space near building for student with most improved attendance (*For High Schoolers 16+) AttenDANCE! School dance held for students with improved attendance or for completion of the Attendance Passport *Make sure to reward students in proportion to level of improvement in attendance.

28 27 For Parents and the Community Attendance incentives are most effective when part of a comprehensive approach that includes outreach to families with more significant challenges to attendance. Incentives should be part of creating a school-wide culture of attendance and accompanied by a deep commitment to ensuring students are engaged in the classroom once they show up. Send home information highlighting both the value of attendance and incentives and the consequences of poor attendance. Ensure families know about the incentive program and the importance of attendance for academic success, as well as school policies in which poor attendance can result in failing a course or being retained. Sanctions should never be used without incentives. Awards Present awards to parents during an organized assembly for their role in helping students practice perfect attendance. Weekly Bulletin Include a parent highlight in the monthly briefing acknowledging the efforts of a parent of a student who exhibits perfect attendance and distribute in the community. Letters/Phone Calls Call or send letters home to appreciate the parents of a student who exhibits perfect attendance. Community Supporters Recognize community supporters for their role in assisting with student attendance. Attendance Passport Since students should be rewarded for improved attendance, the Attendance Passport is a way for the Attendance team to keep track of students attendance and reward students for being on-time and present on a monthly basis. Have the teacher of the class initial each box the student was present. Once the student has attained perfect attendance for the 30 days, reward them with a special prize, e.g., entry into the AttenDANCE!

29 28 Thank you to our partners, for this toolkit was developed in a collaborative effort: SA2020 Big Brothers Big Sisters of South Texas City of San Antonio Pre-K 4 SA City of San Antonio Head Start City of San Antonio Dept. of Human Services City of San Antonio Municipal Courts San Antonio Area Foundation San Antonio Education Partnership San Antonio Youth Literacy Spurs Sports Entertainment Rep. Mike Villarreal s Office United Way of San Antonio & Bexar County Eastside Promise Neighborhood Valero Energy Foundation East Central Independent School District Edgewood Independent School District Ft. Sam Houston Independent School District Harlandale Independent School District Judson Independent School District North East Independent School District Northside Independent School District San Antonio Independent School District Southwest Independent School District South San Antonio Independent School District Southside Independent School District Special thanks to:

30 Student Attendance Passport Student Attendance Passport School Name: Student Name: Month: School Name: Student Name: Month:

31 Attendance Passport Your Daily Attendance Passport to School Success Make sure to get your teacher to initial next to each DAY you attend. Month: Year: Attendance Passport Your Daily Attendance Passport to School Success Make sure to get your teacher to initial next to each DAY you attend. Month: Year: