Shawnee Mission reports drop in chronic absenteeism, details expanded attendance and mental‑health supports

The Shawnee Mission School District’s Student and Family Services team updated the Board of Education on attendance, student mental‑health initiatives and student leadership programs, reporting a districtwide drop in chronic absenteeism and outlining new supports for students and families.

The department told the board it hired six attendance specialists placed across feeder patterns plus an additional specialist supporting Horizons and Arrowhead, and that the team has done more than 2,300 individual student check‑ins and contacted nearly 2,000 parents. “I tell families I talk with that I am here as an advocate,” said Memo Rodriguez, a district attendance specialist, describing outreach and goal‑setting meetings aimed at removing barriers to school attendance.

Those attendance efforts coincided with a decrease in the district’s chronic absenteeism rate, the presentation said: December data showed a decline from 22% to 18% of students meeting the district’s 10%‑or‑more definition of chronic absenteeism. John McKinney, Director of Student and Family Services, said the drop reflects expanded communication, new attendance practices at the building level and a focus on tier‑1 classroom supports.

Why it matters: chronic absenteeism is tied to long‑term academic risk and on‑time graduation. The Student and Family Services presentation tied its work directly to the district strategic plan goals on academic success, belonging and the new mental‑health priority added to the plan.

Attendance and family supports: Rodriguez described the team’s daily work—following data, conducting home and school contacts, holding monthly follow‑ups for chronically absent students and coordinating with building teams to code and respond to excused and unexcused absences. Board members asked whether the district tracks excused versus unexcused reasons centrally; McKinney said buildings track at the student level and the attendant specialists are working with schools to disaggregate reasons and code records so interventions can be tailored.

Mental‑health staffing and programs: The district reported it employs 57 master’s‑ and clinical‑level social workers and 40 counselors, and that school counselors and social workers logged more than 45,000 guidance‑related interactions during the 2023–24 school year (11,894 entries categorized under social‑emotional). McKinney said the district’s strategy teams are clarifying roles and job descriptions for social workers, counselors and school psychologists and are actively exploring the addition of counselors at the pre‑K–6 level.

Student voice and peer programs: Presenters highlighted the Youth Equity Stewardship (YES) program and school‑based student affinity groups as central to equity and belonging work. Maya Williams, a senior and district intern, described YES as a student‑led forum for equity advocacy and said the program now includes students from each high school. Catherine Harder, a Shawnee Mission West social worker, and Williams credited partnerships with Johnson County Mental Health for helping launch Sources of Strength and the 0 Reasons Why suicide‑prevention program; Williams said student leaders have organized events such as a color run, training sessions and community panels.

Board questions and next steps: Board members asked what the district expects to report a year from now. McKinney said the committees working on mental‑health strategy had met repeatedly and would likely bring recommendations about clarified roles and potential elementary counselors in coming meetings. Administrators said additional teams are building a Belonging Resource Hub for staff and continuing community inventories related to strategy goals.

Ending: The Student and Family Services team said it will continue implementing attendance outreach, expanding mental‑health resources and growing student leadership programs, and will bring updates to the board in future meetings.