As educators know all too well, student attendance directly affects student achievement. Simply put, if students aren’t in school, they can’t learn. To learn what school leaders can do given the increasing rates of chronic absenteeism in the wake of the pandemic, Principal Leadership contacted Bebi Davis, EdD, PhD, a vice principal of Kawananakoa Middle School in Honolulu, HI, and the 2023 Hawaii Assistant Principal of the Year; Timothy Ray, an assistant principal of Charles Page High School in Sand Springs, OK, and the 2023 Oklahoma Assistant Principal of the Year; and Sharon U. Slater, PhD, an assistant principal of Ridgeland High School in Ridgeland, MS.

Principal Leadership: Can you talk about the impact of student attendance at your school and how it’s changed since the pandemic?

Davis: Student attendance directly impacts academic performance. Chronic absenteeism in Hawaii is defined as 15 absences or more in a school year. Before the pandemic, we at Kawananakoa used to have a chronic absenteeism rate of between 5% to 7% with an enrollment of about 600 students. Since the pandemic, absenteeism has increased considerably. Last school year, our absenteeism rate was 23%, and our Pacific Islander subgroup had the highest absenteeism rate at our school. This trend parallels what we are experiencing across the nation and is a serious concern for our schools.

Ray: In Oklahoma, chronic absenteeism is defined by 18 or more absences in a school year. I would say what’s changed between the pandemic and now is that our attendance codes have evolved. We now have distance learning and virtual school, and we’ve had to manage that and make sure we’re staying above board with the legalities in keeping accurate attendance records. That would be the big difference pre- and post-pandemic: the different way of coding and a different way of looking at educating the student fully.

Slater: We have struggled to get students back in school. Absenteeism varies by grade level. Our highest absenteeism rate is about 15% for our ninth graders and our lowest rate is among our seniors. For us, chronic absenteeism is missing 18 days or more in a school year. Our school has a block schedule, which means our students are on an A and B schedule, so for example, they’ll attend a class for 94 minutes on Monday and then attend that class again on Wednesday and Friday. So, when a student misses 18 instructional blocks, that’s a lot of instructional time.

Principal Leadership: What are some reasons why students are chronically absent?

Davis: Other than health issues, one of the main reasons our students are chronically absent is when families immigrate from other countries, a culture of schooling is not always the first thing on their plate. For example, among many of our students who are Pacific Islanders, family responsibilities come first, so they are more focused on taking care of their family. Also, Pacific Islanders are a diverse group with many cultural backgrounds. So, when it comes to schooling experiences, it differs depending on the country of origin. As such, sometimes students feel disconnected at school, and it can lead to chronic absenteeism. There are many cultural challenges in schooling, and we’re constantly tweaking our systems to best support our students. Creating more place-based learning opportunities and contextualizing learning to real life engages our students’ interests. This helps boost attendance and ultimately increases student success.

Slater: We’re seeing the same thing in our school. We have 11 different nationalities represented at Ridgeland. That’s one of our strengths, but it also presents a challenge. The highest rates of chronic absences are among our Hispanic students. Some are brilliant but may come from cultures where education may not be the number one priority of the family. The priority is being able to provide food, and we must understand that. We’re going to have to continue to evolve and develop systems that provide support. We may have to get creative about what really is considered “absent.”

The administrative team at Charles Page High School in Sand Springs, OK. From left: Assistant Principal Timothy Ray; Counselor Michelle Spears; Principal Stan Trout; and Assistant Principal Ryan Bivin.

Ray: People’s views on education differ a bit now because of the pandemic and the experience of learning from home. The norms for attending school in person, behavior, and academic expectations are difficult for some students because they were out of school buildings for a year and a half. Parents also may have become accustomed to students learning from home. Something we’re going to have to continue to emphasize is engaging families in our school community. The best bang for our buck is basically knocking on doors and intervening as early as we can. We have systems in place that we use. For instance, when a student misses five days, we contact families at home for sure. If they miss seven days, then we’re having meetings to see if we can serve their needs in a better way.

Principal Leadership: What strategies and supports does your school have in place that seem to be working?

Davis: Most of our students live near our school and we develop a good relationship with our ohanas (Hawaiian for “families”). Sometimes it even comes down to knocking on doors to get students to come to school. Our counselors, assistant principals, and even the principal walk to their house, knock on doors, and wait for them to get dressed and walk them to school. Having a good relationship is key. We have systems where we try to establish one-on-one relationships with our students. Our counselors are really trying to support our Pacific Islander students. We have a counselor who is the same ethnicity, so they really connect with her. Every time you go to her office, she’s giving many students extra academic support. We also have a new class for students who are a little behind with their English and Math. We call it study skills, and it provides Tier 3 support.

The administrative team at Charles Page High School in Sand Springs, OK. From left: Assistant Principal Timothy Ray; Counselor Michelle Spears; Principal Stan Trout; and Assistant Principal Ryan Bivin.

We are constantly talking with students and making that effort to get them to want to be in school. What I usually do, especially in the morning when kids are starting to come in late, instead of saying “Why are you late?” I welcome them to school and encourage them to try to be early the next day, because a lot of times when they are late, everybody scolds them and then they usually skip school. I try to calm them down or walk them to class and talk with them. The key component is developing that positive relationship with students. If they don’t feel you care for them, they don’t want to come to school. Many times, I give students chocolate because in Hawaii, food plays a critical part in fostering relationships.

Slater: We do a robocall home the minute a student is absent. Sometimes parents didn’t know their child wasn’t at school. When students discover that a call is going home, frequently they’ll just come on to school to avoid having to provide an explanation of where they were. Also, once the number of absences goes beyond five days, the counselors and administrative team are alerted. We look at attendance data, academic data, and any other data we need. And counselors inform us about students we might want to keep our eyes out for.

The greatest system, though, is building relationships with students and the community. At the beginning of the school year, our teachers and administrators go into the community and promote school readiness. We’ll stand at the entrance to the grocery store to greet parents and students to let them know that we are here. We give them the school calendar for the year and our contact information. It’s important that we go to them. We’re also doing more with student recognition and student engagement. We’ve placed big, electronic display boards throughout the school where we recognize our students for various reasons—academics, athletics, arts, or community achievements. We also look at every extracurricular activity to see whose names are there but more importantly to see whose names are not there. And we’ve increased the number and variety of clubs to match students’ interests. Engaged students are more likely to come to school.

Ray: What we’re really stressing is that every student has a connection with an adult in the school. So, if the student isn’t present, an adult notices. That really helps students know that someone is missing them, that they need to come to school. So, those relationships and connections are crucial. We’ve also put an emphasis on giving students opportunities to get themselves out of academic holes. We call our program ICU (Intensive Care Unit–Tier 3 Intervention). When a student misses five or six days, that’s a lot of instruction. They believe there’s no way out of that and if they don’t think there’s any way to catch up, then they’re not going to continue to come to school. In our ICU program, teachers are specifically working with students who have fallen behind due to attendance. They’re filling in those skills gaps, getting them back on track, and showing them there’s light at the end of the tunnel. Also, when we make those visits and build those relationships, we sometimes find a family’s hierarchy of needs isn’t being met and coming to school is way down the priority list. We’re trying to continue to ensure that our community knows about all of the resources we have available to help them.

Principal Leadership: One of the challenges from the pandemic is that no one knows what has happened to tens of thousands of students who didn’t return to school. Has your district worked to find out what happened to them?

Slater: When we look at our enrollment at the beginning of the year and see that a child didn’t graduate, we set out to find out where he or she went. It’s easier to find them if they’re still within our state because we have a system in place. It is harder to find them if they’ve left the state, but we do make a diligent effort to find them.

Ray: Certainly, schools are working hard to find these students. If we can’t account for them, they count as dropouts in our schools and district. In Oklahoma, if students were to transfer and go to another school, the receiving school would request records so there’s a paper trail for sure. Because I live in a community that’s smaller—it’s a suburb of Tulsa—a lot of times we can find kids through word of mouth, through their friends, or through those connections.

Davis: For Hawaii, we’re a much smaller state so it’s easier to track students if they change schools. The hardest part is when they leave the state and travel to another country. For example, we have Pacific Islander students who return home because their parents take the students with them for various reasons, such as family challenges. And sometimes the parents don’t communicate with you. But we do our due diligence to ensure we connect with family members or emergency contacts to figure out where they are.

Principal Leadership: Can you share a success story about helping a chronically absent student regularly attend school?

Slater: If they stop coming to us, we go to where they are. If they told me, “I’m working at this place or that place, and I had to miss school because I was sleepy,” I show up at that place. I’ve even spoken with managers and asked them to remember to let students off work early during the school week. We have such a great community that they gladly work with our students on work schedules. We need to continue to build relationships with the community, not just with the families. If you show up like this, the word will get out. It’s so important to be where they are and let them know they are the most important person in the world to me. My students are my job.

A recent success story is one student who was experiencing homelessness. He wasn’t coming to school because he didn’t have resources. So, we had a church replenish our clothing closet. And after school, he went shopping in this closet and got what he needed. Then, he started coming to school. When our students know we care, they are excited to come see us at school.

Davis: I took it upon myself to start mentoring one student in particular. He was struggling in math and science. I know math and science since I’m a former math and physics teacher. Every day I would check up on him and his work. Because of our consistent and positive interactions, he would say, “You’re becoming my favorite person!” He had trouble focusing but when he did focus, he would just bloom. I’m proud to say that after I started working with him, he began regularly attending school. He succeeded because of the relationship we had; he knew I cared about him. Building positive relationships with our students and families is key to making them want to attend school and want to learn.

Ray: For us, the culture change at our school is a success story. One in three students in Tulsa County has experienced trauma of some kind. The culture shift has been not to assume a student is not coming to school because they’re choosing not to come. There’s usually a pretty strong reason why they’re not attending, and we need to ensure that we are serving them in the best way we can. Once that shift happened, the academic achievement and support changed. Our staff would tell you we give students a lot of grace, but we also fill in skills gaps in that ICU program I mentioned. When our teachers provide such specific, in-depth intervention to these kids, they begin to see the value in being at school and see that they can have success. At that point, attendance tends to improve. We believe strongly that every student can learn at high levels, and the biggest factor in a student’s success is the teacher’s belief in that student. This relationship is vital. For this reason, we emphasize the importance of traditional on-site attendance every chance we get.