Addressing Chronic Absenteeism with a Multi-Tiered Approach

While attendance problems have always been a concern, in most schools attendance problems worsened significantly after the COVID-19 pandemic. This session provides participants with strategies to effectively address student absenteeism across all grade levels. Filled with practical examples from schools that have made significant attendance gains, participants will learn ways to implement schoolwide and classroom procedures to improve the attendance of all students at the universal, Tier 1 level of their support system. Participants will also learn how to create layers of Tier 2 and Tier 3 supports and implement a variety of interventions to address common functions.

This session is recommended for a team of 3–8 people from a building and/or district team. Appropriate team members include attendance team personnel, PBIS or MTSS for behavior team members, or any other entity that is focused on schoolwide attendance, culture, and climate approaches. Appropriate team members might include administrators, school psychologists, counselors, social workers, attendance clerks, general or special education teachers who assist in planning schoolwide approaches, and any classified staff members who are well respected by other members of the school staff and build strong relationships with kids. While this session is appropriate for solo building or district administrators and other personnel in charge of decision-making about school systems, implementation is typically stronger when training is attended by a representative team of staff members who can guide implementation efforts.