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District introduces AI texting tool EDIA to boost family outreach and fight chronic absenteeism
Summary
Central Consolidated Schools staff described a new AI-powered attendance outreach tool, EDIA, and a March attendance challenge intended to increase family engagement and reduce chronic absenteeism. The board pressed for clarity on funding, chronic-absence drivers at specific high schools and how health guidance will be distributed.
Tia, the district's attendance presenter, told the Central Consolidated Schools board the district has started using EDIA, an AI-driven two-way texting platform, to make it easier for families to report absences and to improve outreach.
"We've now received lots of parents texting back and really engaging with our platform so that it's more convenient for them to state why their students [are] absent," Tia said, summarizing the pilot experience and describing color-coded absence reasons—health, family obligations, transportation, mental health, vacation/travel, discipline or suspension, and other.
The district said EDIA is already easing staff workload by freeing attendance clerks to call families who do not respond to texts, and that clerks are using those calls to educate families about the system and to verify phone numbers in person for privacy and safety reasons. Tia said her position is grant-funded: "My salary does come from [an] attendance improvement grant," and that the district plans continued outreach in the fall.
Board members focused their questions on where chronic-absence counts are concentrated and on whether disciplinary suspensions or student transfers are inflating school-level rates. One board member noted that Nukem High School shows substantially higher chronic absence figures and asked whether suspensions or students who enroll but do not show up could be driving the numbers. Tia said transfer patterns and students who enroll but never attend have accumulated against particular schools and that the New Mexico Public Education Department's method counts those absences in chronic-absence figures.
The board also asked whether the district's health guidance would be included in enrollment materials; Tia said the district has updated the attendance website with health guidance and plans to add the guidance to enrollment packets. She acknowledged community concerns about head lice and said family resource centers distribute lice kits and staff provide hands-on help to families facing capacity barriers.
Board members praised the initiative and recognized Tia's recent state acknowledgement. President Montoya said the district will watch results closely and invited staff to return with impact data. The district recommended families update contact numbers in person at schools to ensure secure communication.
The board did not take formal action on EDIA during the meeting; the presenter said continued rollout and family education would continue over the coming months.
