District kicks off Attendance Awareness Month with home visits, mentors and transit support

Jessica Solano, Fallbrook Union High School District supervisor of attendance, presented the district’s Attendance Awareness Month initiatives on Sept. 10 and summarized interventions used during the 2024–25 school year to address chronic absenteeism.

Solano told trustees chronic absence is defined as missing 10% or more of school and that the district’s top contributing factors were transportation problems, students feeling disengaged, unstable housing and family/work responsibilities. Solano said staff completed more than 100 home visits at Fallbrook High School and 23 at Ivy High School, held School Attendance Review Team (SART) meetings and referred students to mental-health and community services. The district also partnered with North County Transit and issued Pronto cards to students with transportation barriers.

The district’s current interventions emphasize connecting each at-risk student with three trusted adults on campus, weekly check-ins for six weeks, summer outreach for incoming ninth graders, and a peer-mentor program that pairs previously chronically absent students with incoming ninth graders. Solano said the district informed teachers about an at-risk list of 40 incoming ninth graders so teachers could provide early supports during the first six weeks of school, a period staff identified as predictive of the rest of the year.

Trustees thanked staff and noted the importance of cross-district partnerships with elementary and middle schools to ease transitions. No board action was requested; this was an informational presentation.