How we cut chronic absenteeism in half

When I took the helm as principal of Nathanael Greene Middle School in April 2023, one in every two students was chronically absent. This school boasted a celebrated history, but at the time, it ranked in the bottom 1% of the state – a one-star school.  It was identified for comprehensive support and school improvement. 

Chronic absenteeism was at 50% that year at Greene. Half of our students were missing 18 or more days. We understood the link between attendance and achievement, and we had a lot of work to do. We needed to get the kids into the building. 

A common misconception about absenteeism is that the families don’t care about school – that they aren’t invested or don’t see the value. Instead, what we uncovered in our work were specific barriers that we could help families overcome through a consistent, well-resourced investment. 

Today, I’m proud to say that we’ve cut chronic absenteeism in half at Nathanael Greene. Since I know many of my fellow leaders are grappling with absenteeism, I want to share the approach that worked for us.

Summer preparation: Connecting with families

As we launched our efforts to combat absenteeism, our school had a well-staffed administrative team of non-teaching support roles, including a director of school operations, four guidance counselors, a culture coordinator and a community specialist. Over the summer, we convened to design our plan for getting kids into school.

We started July 1 and made a list of every kid who had missed between 15-25 days of school – kids who were either chronically absent or on the cusp of chronic absenteeism, but who we saw as recoverable during the upcoming school year. Our list included about 150 students, so each member of our team was responsible for 15.

That summer, every single one of us scheduled 15 parent meetings. We brought in the students. We brought in the families. We created attendance contracts, and we unpacked what chronic absenteeism means. When we asked, “Do you understand that missing just two days a month makes you chronically absent?,” a lot of families were baffled. They didn’t realize the impact of missing a day every couple of weeks. We also dug into achievement data, showing families their students’ test scores.

We emphasized the message: “Your kid has a ton of potential.” The families all agreed with that. Then we said, “But look what they’re outputting. They’re in the bottom 10% most of the time in their class. That’s not where you want them to be when they’re applying to high school.” Once families could see the connection between their child’s attendance and achievement in these concrete terms, they tended to get on board right away. They were ready to work on problem-solving. We moved into unpacking the barriers they faced and the supports they needed. The question we asked the most was, “What do you need to make this happen?”

Breaking down barriers

During those summer attendance conversations, we learned that families of chronically absent students were often running into specific barriers that we had the power to dismantle.

We have a low-income population, with 90% of our students qualifying for free or reduced lunch. About 40% of our families are multilingual. One of the most common needs we encountered was bussing. We live in a district in which students are expected to walk if they live within a mile and a half of the school. We also live in the Northeast, and we get snow. Families told us, “If my kid gets a bus, he will be there every day.” Other families let us know that they needed access to food. “If my kid is hungry, I can’t send her to school.“

We connected with the transportation department and arranged for kids who needed buses to get buses. We developed a food pantry. We marshaled all available resources to remove barriers for families working to get their students to school.

An ongoing wraparound effort

Throughout the school year, every single week, our team members checked in with each of our 15 kids and families. At the end of the quarter, we reassessed. Some of these students had perfect attendance, and we graduated them off the caseload. We told families, “You’re doing a great job. We’ll still get you what you need, but we’re not going to be checking in with you every week.” We added new kids to our lists who had become chronically absent during the first quarter.

We owned the monitoring of student attendance, and we wanted the connections to feel personal, rather than telling families to go check on their kids’ attendance in our online portals. When the students came in for check-ins, we called their families on speakerphone. We wanted students to know: “Your family cares about you being here. We care about you being here.” By the end of the year, those kids also cared about being there.

Throughout the year, we also held more family events – honor roll nights, Provide Public School events and resourcing events with counseling agencies. We wanted to position ourselves as a community hub for families. The culmination of all these things helped families realize, “This place really cares about my kid, and it’s more than just a school.”

The results

Within a year and a half, we reduced our chronic absenteeism rate from 50% to 29%. We were the only middle school out of eight in the district to meet the goal of being under 30%. In the same year, we moved from one star to two stars – a rare achievement in our system – and logged the highest-ever proficiency score on the ELA RICAS test, our state assessment, for any middle school in Providence.

Being in school truly paid off for these students. At the end of the year, we celebrated with a big ceremony to highlight their gains. Many students improved their RICAS scores by 50% to 75%, and parents saw firsthand the impact of their kids being in school 18, 20 or even 30 more days. It was an incredible year, made possible by a Herculean effort from our entire community.

Of course, there was pushback along the way. But those moments of resistance led to some of our most rewarding success stories. One student, who had missed around 50 days during sixth and seventh grade, regularly clashed with the assistant principal about attending school. Eventually, he started showing up every day. One day, he approached the AP and said, “Thank you for doing that. I know I was tough, but I finally understand why I’m here, and I can see a future ahead for me.”

These stories remind us that genuine care makes all the difference. It’s about showing students that their future matters – not just to us, but to them – and proving it through persistence and unwavering support.

Looking ahead

This isn’t the type of effort that can be finished in one year, and of course we’re continuing to look toward next steps and address new challenges.

Restructuring our teacher teams
As student attendance increased, teachers needed more support. In the past, only 500 of 900 students might have been in the building on a given day. As those numbers rose to 700, 770 and sometimes 800, the classroom dynamic shifted. Teachers requested common planning time to strategize how to better support students, and we’ve restructured our schedule to make that possible.

Making do with fewer support staff
Our initial attendance push occurred during a year when we had the budget for a robust administrative support team. Budget cuts have since reduced this infrastructure, however. Fortunately, the achievement gains from our efforts mean teachers now have more bandwidth to contribute to the attendance conversations. After restructuring our teaching teams into smaller learning communities as teachers requested, with teams supporting common students, we appointed stipend Team Leads to oversee wraparound communication about attendance. Each week, during one of their prep periods, teaching teams meet with the assistant principal and guidance counselor, along with their whole team – math, science, social studies and ELA teachers. Together, they discuss attendance, grades, behaviors and upcoming events. This approach ensures comprehensive support, with all the adults working together to address each student’s needs.

Expanding our reach to even more students
While attendance improved significantly for the middle band of students – those who were chronically absent or near the tipping point – we still struggle to reach a subset of students with even higher rates of absenteeism. Many of these students live with relatives who are caring for them while their parents remain in their countries of origin. For these families, daily survival often takes precedence over ensuring school attendance. This year, we’re focusing on building conversations with these caregivers. Our message is: “You’re doing a great job at home, but education is what will set the kids free.” As in our previous effort, we’re focused on conveying the importance of regular attendance to our students’ families, who we already know care so much about their kids.

Working on a similar effort? Here’s my advice.

The challenges in Providence might look very different from those in Texas or Michigan. But no matter where you are, the first step is talking with teachers, students and families to identify barriers. What’s preventing attendance or engagement? Is it busing? Translation? Food? Something else entirely? You have to pinpoint what’s specific to your context.

Once you’ve done that, collaborate with your team to make a plan. Be as inclusive as possible. It’s easy for us as principals to think, “I have to do everything myself.” But I’ve learned leadership is about perspective. You need to be on the balcony, observing the dance floor – not out there dancing yourself. From that vantage point, you can direct others: assigning APs to help, mobilizing coaches and supporting teachers as they guide students toward success. True leadership isn’t about doing it all; it’s about empowering your team to get it done together.

It’s also important to reject the assumption that some students and families just don’t care about school. That’s simply not true. Often, these families are facing more difficult scenarios than others, and it’s our job as educators to ask, “How can we support them? Our results prove the value of this approach: Nearly 80% of the students we focused on last year overcame chronic absenteeism. Those families clearly value education and their children’s futures – they just needed the right support to get there. With collaboration, understanding and leadership, we were able to improve attendance and instruction in the same year – a truly remarkable achievement. And you already know this, but I can say first-hand: It’s all worth it.

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