By Michelle Ryan and Vanessa Vaquerano, Ed.D.

At our district, the chronic absenteeism crisis was a growing concern, fundamentally reshaping our priorities in K-12 education. We recognized that traditional, reactive approaches like mailed letters and after-the-fact notifications simply weren’t enough to address the profound impact on student success—from academic risk to the potential of dropping out. A more comprehensive, proactive strategy was essential to truly connect with families and improve attendance.

We were already leveraging a robust school-home communication platform, and as we sought a more holistic way forward for attendance, we were eager to participate in a pilot program with the platform to integrate this critical function directly into our existing system. This meant that by working within the communication tool families already trusted and used daily, we could seamlessly manage and track our attendance communications and intervention strategies. This approach avoided another new app or platform for families to adopt, and allowed our team to spend less time juggling tools and more time actually improving attendance outcomes through familiar and effective engagement.

An early and important lesson we learned was the impact of empowering more staff with these tools. In alignment with the California Department of Education requirements to combat chronic absenteeism, we successfully applied for the Learning Communities for School Success Program funding. This enabled us to hire five dedicated child welfare and attendance clerks (CWAs), placing one at each elementary school.

From Intervention to Impact

Now, our attendance clerks start every day with a clear, visual attendance dashboard showing which students need support and why. ParentSquare Attendance Plus automatically organizes students into intervention tiers based on absences, grade level, and their most recent engagement data. This means we can identify at-risk students at a glance and take action, whether that means sending proactive messages, flagging a case for district-level intervention, or assigning a student to a staff member for immediate outreach. As with our non-attendance communications, staff can send messages or start conversations in families’ home languages to make sure that they’re easy to engage with, whether following up on absences or celebrating small wins when attendance improves.

The decision paid off. Between January and March, one of our elementary schools jumped from a 90% average daily attendance (ADA) to a 95% ADA, which was a substantial improvement. Another elementary school hit a 96% ADA for March and won our attendance campaign for the month.

We’ve also seen improvements in parent engagement since implementing our new attendance strategy. Our staff members use the platform to manage attendance, and our IT data team synthesizes the data into monthly reports that highlight key points, surface any issues, and celebrate wins.

One of the things we’ve learned is that the more staff who have access to these tools, the better. Since we only have our CWAs on site for a three-hour period every day, it’s vital that we make the most of their time. With our attendance tracking dashboard, now they have a powerful jumping-off point. They log in and immediately see at a glance which families need intervention. This centralized data enables targeted outreach—from positive encouragement to reminders and support—and has been a tremendous help in maximizing their daily impact.

Five Strategic Pillars for Progress

There’s no quick fix or one-size-fits-all solution for chronic absenteeism. But in combination with tier-based engagement, these are some of the strategic pillars we’ve found most helpful in supporting attendance outcomes in our district.

Cultivate a unified vision for attendance from the start. We formed our attendance task force team to bring diverse voices together and collaboratively shape our attendance procedures. Kicking off the year with attendance team meetings for principals, office staff, attendance clerks, and community liaisons ensured aligned priorities and readiness to tackle chronic absenteeism.

Embed ongoing positive reinforcement and campaigns. We found success not only with our district-wide attendance campaigns, but also through consistent, positive, and celebratory messaging. Using our comprehensive dashboards, we actively highlighted improved attendance, reinforcing positive habits. This approach is crucial because it builds trust and shows families that schools are partners invested in their child’s overall well-being, not just contacting them when there’s a problem.

Empower staff with actionable starting points. Our integrated attendance dashboard ensures that staff and CWAs who have limited on-site hours have immediate access to the insights they need to prioritize outreach and make meaningful connections with families.

Close critical communication gaps. When calls go unanswered, CWAs can rely on our school-home communication and attendance platform to deliver messages in the ways families actually respond to such as text messages. Leveraging a platform parents already trust ensures critical outreach gets through and helps us foster deeper partnerships.

Embrace a holistic support framework. While attendance letters continue on a monthly basis, our attendance solution is our primary tool for connecting with families. If we identify a situation at home that’s affecting a student’s attendance, we can strategically decide, at the district or site level, whether a formal notification letter is appropriate within a broader, empathetic support network. This technology empowers us to weave these letters into a more comprehensive approach for students and their families.

Attendance Isn’t About Compliance, It’s About Connection

What we’ve learned is this: You can’t fix chronic absenteeism with data and sending attendance letters alone. Real change happens when staff are empowered to make meaningful contact with families. By building that capability directly into our school-home communication platform, our new attendance tool makes early intervention and positive connection points not just possible, but incredibly powerful.

In education, connection is everything. With the right tools and mindset, it can even change the trajectory of a student’s learning journey. As we look ahead to the 2025-26 school year, we’re excited to enter it with a proven, proactive approach that prioritizes communication, empowers staff, and supports every student, every day.

About the authors

Michelle Ryan is lead data integrity specialist and Vanessa Vaquerano, Ed.D, is data integrity specialist at South Whittier School District in Whittier, Calif.