Attendance initiative aims to reduce chronic absenteeism; district highlights high rates in high schools

Memphis-Shelby County Schools staff presented the district’s attendance and truancy scorecard to the Community Outreach and Engagement Committee on Oct. 21, describing a new ‘‘Show Up for Greatness’’ campaign, initial first-quarter data, targeted outreach in ZIP codes and a plan to centralize truancy operations.

The district’s goals for the 2025–26 school year — as presented by Stacy Davis, director of enrollment and attendance — include a 2 percentage-point increase in overall attendance, a 5 percentage-point reduction in chronic absenteeism, a 5 percentage-point increase in parent participation at attendance meetings (from a baseline of 88.8% toward a 94% goal) and a 2 percentage-point reduction in truancy. Staff said the data cited were pulled on Oct. 3 and are “lag” figures that will update.

What the data show Staff highlighted that absenteeism and truancy are concentrated in high school grades: grades 9–12 show the highest absentee and truancy rates, with grade 10 reported as having the highest absentee rate at 9.2% (first-quarter data presented). Kindergarten also showed elevated numbers relative to other elementary grades (attendance rate around 6.4% absence in the period cited). Staff said internal estimates of high risk for chronic absenteeism for the 2024–25 year were part of their analysis but final state data for 2024–25 remained embargoed.

Targeted outreach and early results The Show Up for Greatness initiative uses a tiered approach (gold/silver/bronze) to reward regular attendance and increases support for tier‑2 and tier‑3 students through attendance liaisons, family liaisons and RTIB specialists. Staff described door‑hangers and phone outreach in targeted ZIP codes — including 38127, 38109 and 38114 — to re-enroll students not registered for the new school year. Staff reported that door-knock outreach and follow-up calls led to re-enrollment activity; by Oct. 3, staff said 1,042 students reached during outreach…