District rolls out attendance pilot using AI “nudges”; board hears metrics and school list

District staff described a tier‑2 attendance pilot at an informal Sept. 2 board meeting that will use an AI‑powered communication tool to send automated letters and two‑way text “nudges” to families and to provide real‑time aggregated data to school and district teams. Mr. Butler, a district staff member leading attendance work, said the district is using a PDSA (plan, do, study, act) model and listed three expected outcomes: reduce chronic absenteeism, improve attendance rates and increase family engagement and conversion to supports. “When we reach out to a family, if our follow‑up made a difference and it converted into the student actually leveraging a resource and coming into school,” Butler said, that conversion is a key measure. Dr. Taylor, who presented details of the pilot, said the tool will automatically generate a mailed visual letter…