How to Reduce Chronic Absenteeism in Schools

When I started tracking attendance with classroom dollars, something unexpected happened. The kid who missed 40 days last year? He showed up 162 days straight. Here's what changed everything: Students earned "Kocher Bucks" for perfect weekly attendance. Miss a day? No penalty—but no bonus either. Simple as that. The magic wasn't in the money. It was in what happened next: • Kids started waking each other up for school • Parents got involved when they saw the classroom auction • Students calculated how many days until they could afford that premium reward (usually headphones or candy) According to recent K-12 research, schools using classroom economies saw attendance improvements of 5-16%. Connecticut's LEAP program reported nearly 16 percentage points improvement for high schoolers after implementing similar systems. But here's what the data doesn't capture: The quiet kid who finally had a reason to show up. The class that turned attendance into a team sport. The parent who said "my daughter sets her own alarm now." We made attendance tangible. Every day = $1. Perfect week = $5 bonus. Monthly auction where kids bid on everything I could get my hands on Three unexpected benefits emerged: • Financial literacy snuck into daily conversations • Peer accountability replaced teacher nagging • Students learned delayed gratification (saving for bigger rewards) The best part? It only cost me $20-30 in store/auction items per month. If chronic absenteeism is your battle, stop fighting it with consequences. Start rewarding presence instead. What creative ways have you seen schools tackle attendance challenges? P.S. Want to implement this school-wide? Reach out for a consultation. #Education #ClassroomManagement #StudentEngagement #K12Education #canvasfam #TeacherLife #SchoolAttendance #ClassroomEconomy

🏠 17,000 Home Visits. 12 States. One Clear Truth: We've Been Getting School Attendance All Wrong. I'm pleased to share my latest article: "Why Students Miss School, and Why We Miss the Point: Lessons Learned from Concentric Educational Solutions' 17,000+ Home Visits in 2024-2025." As a researcher and a father, this work challenged everything I thought I knew about chronic absenteeism. While my wife Marshella and I struggled with our own "privileged chaos" of getting kids out the door each morning, our team at Concentric Educational Solutions was revolutionizing how we understand attendance challenges by going directly into homes across America, listening to families facing impossible choices with insufficient resources. What Concentric's groundbreaking approach revealed: • Behind every absence statistic is a family story—not a character flaw • Students missing school to care for disabled parents or younger siblings • Families choosing between transportation to school or transportation to work • Children avoiding school due to untreated trauma, bullying, and safety fears • Parents facing truancy court for circumstances completely beyond their control The hard truth: Our punitive approach to attendance—truancy courts, penalties, threatening letters—adds punishment to circumstances that demand support. Concentric's transformative model: Rather than blame families, we provide comprehensive community support that recognizes attendance challenges as symptoms of systemic failures requiring systemic solutions. Our home-visit methodology doesn't just collect data—it builds relationships, identifies real barriers, and connects families to resources that address root causes. The path forward: We need comprehensive community support systems that address housing, healthcare, transportation, and safety as educational issues, not separate concerns. Every child has a story. Every absence has a context. Concentric Educational Solutions is pioneering the compassionate, evidence-based approach our students deserve. Read the full article to understand why attendance challenges are symptoms of systemic failures, not individual shortcomings—and how Concentric's innovative work is showing us what true educational equity looks like. #EducationEquity #StudentAttendance #SystemicChange #CommunitySupport #EducationalResearch #ConcentricEducationalSolutions

We worked last year with 14 schools to improve attendance. All 14 of those schools improved their average daily attendance by 3-5% percentage points. That was the equivalent of 15-25 students attending class more regularly every day. 3 surefire ways to improve attendance: - Meet proactively with families who have attendance issues the year before to understand what is at the root of the problem, signal partnership in jointly solving the problem, and clearly lay out expectations for the year ahead - Pair every student with attendance issues with an adult they have, or will likely have, a relationship with so that every student knows there's an adult in the building who cares about them and wants them to be there - Increase communication home to families not just about attendance, but about all the great things students are learning at school, how great their experience is, and what families could do at home to support what students are learning and doing in school So many of the solutions to chronic absenteeism I've seen revolve on overhauling systems, hiring more staff, or creating complicated accountability systems. Making sure the student and family experience is a positive one for each student and family, and especially those who are feeling disconnected, is usually a much better place to start.