The U.S. Department of Education recently participated in a roundtable focusing on fighting chronic absenteeism in schools. As part of the roundtable, several participants announced new commitments and resources to support the critical work of keeping children and youth consistently engaged in school, according to a news release.

These new commitments and resources include:

  • The USDOE released a resource highlighting model state attendance data systems. This resource describes how those data systems were designed and implemented to increase student attendance. It provides actionable recommendations for state and local leaders, philanthropy and others to engage in this work. 
  • The National Partnership for Student Success will continue to provide more than 11,000 schools access to a range of supports through a series of engagement events designed to address chronic absence and improve student engagement through the Attendance Solutions Network. NPSS is a public-private partnership between the Department, AmeriCorps, and the Johns Hopkins University Everyone Graduates Center.
  • Through Every Day Counts, a collaboration between NPSS and the Project Unicorn organization, several education technology companies have committed to developing new data features within their platforms at no additional cost to help schools and districts reduce chronic absence. These new features will help educators and leaders to identify struggling students, engage families, and foster a supportive learning environment.
  • The Kresge Foundation published a resource for schools and districts on addressing chronic absenteeism, containing a summary of leading practices and lessons from its work on this topic. These strategies emphasize place-based approaches that leverage community-based organizations to work alongside government and philanthropic entities to drive collective action and accountability.
  • Researchers from The Ohio State University, University of Texas at Austin, University of California Davis, University of Pennsylvania, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, and Wayne State University released a new resource about addressing out-of-school barriers to chronic absenteeism. The resource, called “Before the Bell: Obstacles Preventing Children from Attending School,” as a starting point for conversations recognizing and addressing beyond-school barriers and encouraging education leaders and stakeholders to work together in new, cross-agency collaborative ways including how we think about and collect data.

The Kresge Foundation, Annie E. Casey Foundation, along with other philanthropic partners have committed to convening the participants of this roundtable for future collaboration in efforts to support local communities and districts.