Bastrop ISD reports attendance gains; district launches contests and community partnerships

Casey Lewis, Bastrop ISD’s attendance improvement coordinator, reported that district attendance rates were trending up compared with the previous year and described several initiatives intended to reduce chronic absenteeism.

Lewis said the district’s target this school year was to raise attendance from 92% to 94%. She reported August was the only month with a small decline (0.7 percentage points) and said, by the end of the semester and early January, the district had seen an increase in student attendance compared with last year and an estimated net gain of about 574 students attending more regularly.

To support attendance, the district has launched a district contest titled Make Every Day Count that pits campuses against each other by grade band; winning campuses receive a banner. The contest uses different metrics each month (highest attendance, biggest month‑over‑month improvement, year‑over‑year improvement and first/last day variation) to encourage broader participation. Lewis said district winners in recent months included MENA, Cedar Creek Intermediate, Circa, Colony Oaks and Bastrop Intermediate.

Lewis also described campus‑level incentives (dress‑up days, lunch events, reward trips, class‑level contests) and expanded district communication, including newsletters and parent education sessions on chronic absenteeism. She said the district is collaborating with Bastrop Municipal Court to increase bilingual attendance officers and has begun parent education classes and outreach to businesses to remove attendance barriers. Lewis said she meets with campuses regularly to review truancy prevention measures, barriers and campus initiatives.

The presentation was informational; no board action was required.