Attendance Matters!

The three videos below share how three rural school districts in California’s Central Valley are using cross-sector practices to boost attendance. Each video starts with an overview of national data and research on absenteeism, followed by a profile of the district’s local approaches, including how the district used data to identify at-risk students, built school cultures to promote and reward attendance, and strengthened connections with school-based health centers and other community partners to support students and families.

• Kerman Unified School District
• Parlier Unified School District
• Tulare City School District

Kerman Unified School District

This 11-minute video describes districtwide approaches to supporting chronically absent students and focuses on “whatever-it-takes” strategies that are particularly promising in the elementary grades.

Video transcript for Attendance Matters—Kerman Unified School District

Parlier Unified School District

This 11-minute video describes a communitywide “superhero campaign” to boost daily attendance. It shows how using data and positive messaging, along with intensive student and family supports, can reduce chronic absence.

Video transcript for Attendance Matters—Parlier Unified School District

Tulare City School District

This 12-minute video describes districtwide approaches to supporting chronically absent students, focusing on a particularly promising intervention for early learners called Operation Healthy Hands. This handwashing campaign is intended to reduce common health-related absences and aligns with the state’s developmental standards for students in transitional kindergarten and kindergarten.

Video transcript for Attendance Matters—Tulare City School District