Welcome back to school and to a fresh new year in 2025. We hope you all enjoyed your winter break and are looking forward to the second half of the school year. We are excited to share with you this month’s attendance focused email to LEAs across Utah to hopefully increase awareness of the resources available to LEAs from the Utah State Board of Education and also to share helpful information for you to distribute to other attendance leads in your LEA.
Celebration/Success Stories Ideas
It is essential in our attendance work that we focus on the positive and celebrate successes we are having at the LEA level and at the school level. Here are some ideas from LEAs in our state who are focusing on attendance.
One of the action steps Ogden School District is focusing on is using data to identify groups of students who they are able to impact related to attendance. Specific schools are piloting a "Moveable Middle" meeting where collaborative teams meet to review attendance data every 4-6 weeks. Parents/guardians are sent specific messaging based on data criteria sharing the impact of attendance and progress being made with the student's specific rate of attendance. At one of their schools, the team has identified a 10% improvement in the target students based on mid-term and term attendance rates. This is not only with the group identified in the "Moveable Middle" meetings but also in other subgroups. As a district, they will continue to refine their data analysis process to move to a district-wide implementation. Way to be an example of using data to drive attendance decisions!
Early Light Academy has created a focus on attendance messaging in their schoolwide monthly newsletter. They are holding attendance meetings with chronically absent students, families, and staff. As well as focusing on Tier 1 incentives for students and classes with greater than 95% attendance. We are grateful for their example of focusing on the positive and making sure to be consistent with attendance messaging!
Attendance Webinar
We hope you will join us on January 14, 2025 at 10:30am for our first attendance webinar for 2025. We are looking forward to sharing with you what resources USBE has to offer in regard to attendance. We will also hear from Murray School District who has worked really hard to improve attendance across their LEA and has shown a lot of progress. They will give a lot of practical information for all schools. We hope you will let all of your schools know about this opportunity to learn more about attendance in Utah! The flier can be found here if you would like more information.
Winter Messaging Ideas
Here are some helpful resources from Attendance Works on sending out messages during the winter months.
Parent Engagement Ideas
Here are some ideas on how you can engage with families to have discussions around attendance: home visits, special events, in-person family conferences, virtual family conferences, regular phone calls home, robocalls, automated text messages, manual text messages, letters home, attendance focused family night, digital newsletters, emails, engagement during pick-up and drop-off, dedicated communication app, etc.
Helpful Articles/Podcasts
Schools and Families: Unite to Get Students Back into the Attendance Habit
Request for Information
Murray School District has been analyzing their attendance data and the correlation between attendance and transportation. They are wondering if any other LEA in Utah has noticed any of the following:
*Gaps in busing distance dependent on measuring point (example: 1.9 miles to the school from the leasing office, but the student actually lives farther away)
*Unsafe busing routes due to crime/unsafe neighborhoods
*Other busing/transportation barriers and gaps
If you have any questions or information you would like to share with Murray, please reach out to Brittany Roller at broller@murrayschools.org
Upcoming Dates/Information
January-March 2025- The Utah Legislative Session will start on January 21st and run through March 21st. Watch for updates on legislation surrounding education.
February 4 & 12 2025- Engagement and Attendance Cohorts Collaboration Meetings
*If your LEA is interested in joining an attendance cohort starting next school year, please contact us and we can give you more information.
We appreciate all you do. Please let us know how we can best support you and your schools.
USBE Attendance Specialists
https://www.schools.utah.gov/prevention/absenteeismtruancyprevention
Megan Menlove
Attendance Support Specialist
Utah State Board of Education
