Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Attendance topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
ABC Unified highlights Attendance Awareness Month campaign as district daily attendance edges up
Summary
District leaders presented an Attendance Awareness Month campaign and said districtwide daily attendance reached 97.43% as of Sept. 9; staff outlined targeted supports for chronically absent students, including home visits, SARB referrals and monthly data reporting.
ABC Unified School District officials presented the district’s Attendance Awareness Month efforts and described the targeted strategies they are using to address chronic absenteeism.
Director of secondary schools Ricardo Loyce and pupil services coordinator Hana Mata told the board that the district provided schools with common messaging, banners and themed activities to promote attendance and build school connectedness. ‘Here today, ready for tomorrow’ is this year’s campaign theme, they said. The presentation underscored a research base that links regular attendance with higher academic outcomes.
Key details: Mata reported the districtwide daily attendance as 97.43% on Sept. 9, an improvement from approximately 96% at the same point last year. She reminded trustees that the state’s rolling definition of chronic absenteeism is missing more than 10% of instructional days — generally about 18 days across a 180‑day year — and emphasized that early intervention is important because a few missed days early in the year can lead to chronic status later.
Targeted supports: Mata described ongoing actions in the district’s attendance work, including monthly data reports to school sites, letters to families as required under California Education Code, home visits by a coordinated team that can include counselors and mental‑health staff, and the district Student Attendance Review Board (SARB) that coordinates support with county partners when school‑level interventions haven’t succeeded.
Board questions and follow‑up: Several trustees pressed for extra resources for the small number of schools with persistently high chronic absenteeism; Dr. Rios asked for more intensive support for five of the six identified schools in area six. Trustees discussed patterns (higher absences on Mondays and Fridays), the role of mental‑health supports, and the district’s capacity to scale home visits and partner services. Staff said they will provide additional details in board updates and work with school sites on differentiated plans for each campus.
Why it matters: Attendance is a state performance metric and a driver of academic outcomes and funding levels. Trustees framed attendance work as both a short‑term campaign to improve daily rates and a year‑round, research‑based set of interventions for chronically absent students.
