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Midland ISD outlines attendance strategy, reports small uptick to 95.01%
Summary
District staff presented an attendance update highlighting new truancy procedures, automated warning letters and campus intervention plans; year-to-date attendance was reported at 95.01%, up from 94.8% at the same time last year.
Midland ISD presented an informational attendance report on Sept. 16 that outlined changes to truancy processes, districtwide interventions and what administrators described as a modest improvement in early-year attendance.
Attendance staff defined chronic absenteeism (missing 10% or more of school days) and detailed the district’s systematic responses: automated warning letters at 3, 5, 7 and 10 absences, soft calls from attendance teams after three unexcused absences, campus meetings at seven unexcused absences to create intervention plans, and coordinated filings with truancy courts when problems persist. A district representative said the timelines for court filings have recently been standardized across judges and that the district has removed some procedural barriers, such as requiring campuses to perform home visits.
The presentation reported a year-to-date attendance rate of 95.01%, an increase from 94.8% the prior year. Administrators repeatedly said communication breakdowns with families — failure to provide notes, lack of access to portals and uneven delivery of information from campuses — are a common underlying factor and described steps the district is taking, including online absence submission and outreach to families.
Trustees asked for follow-up data on the effect of truancy-court filings and more granular bus-stop/transportation analysis; administrators said they will begin collecting longer-term outcome data and can provide additional breakdowns on request.
