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Pullman district reviews community engagement board to tackle chronic absenteeism
Summary
Assistant Superintendent Ryan presented the district’s Community Engagement Board and Washington’s BECCA attendance law, highlighted state data on chronic absenteeism and school-level attendance rates, and described the district’s tiered intervention steps that aim to reduce referrals to juvenile court.
Assistant Superintendent Ryan, speaking during the superintendent’s report, outlined how the district’s Community Engagement Board is intended to shift responses to absenteeism from punitive enforcement to early, collaborative intervention. "Students [are] considered chronically absent if they miss 10% or more of school days," Ryan said, and he cited state research tying early chronic absence to lower third-grade reading proficiency and higher dropout risk.
Ryan presented school-level average daily attendance for the prior year — Franklin 92.79 percent, Jefferson 92.66 percent, Kamiak 91.34 percent, Sunnyside 94.77 percent, LMS 89.56 percent and Pullman High School 84.68 percent — and described the board’s operational thresholds: notification on the first unexcused absence, earlier interventions at the second, a formal conference by the fifth, and activation of the Community Engagement Board when a student reaches seven unexcused absences in a month or 15 in a year. "The idea is to try to find ways to collaborate with the student and the family versus punishment for attendance," Ryan said.
Board members asked how many chronically absent students actually reach the engagement-board stage. Ryan said he did not have a precise district percentage and would check with building staff; he estimated the number is "a very small percentage, probably less than 1 percent," and described case-level supports (transportation help, staged reintegration for students with seasonal depression) that have helped avoid escalation. The board did not take a formal vote; Ryan and board members agreed to continue focusing on early-identification and to monitor the engagement-board’s reach and effectiveness.
Ending: The board did not schedule a separate action on the engagement board at this meeting; Ryan said staff are already working with school guiding coalitions over the summer and will return with any proposals or data as part of routine reporting.
