States vary in how they use attendance and enrollment for the basis of school funding. “How to count a student” is a curious question that profoundly impacts budgets. Equally important, understanding the count, its impact on funding (even down to the campus level), and WHAT a school can do about the count is critical to obtaining the necessary resources to grow the whole child.
Abre helps. With a comprehensive approach.
First: Student Count Methods
States count students differently (and many have active legislation to change their methods). Here’s a current breakdown.
For this post, we’ll focus on Average Daily Attendance (ADA). ADA is used by the most populous states in the country (Texas and California). ADA takes a rolling average of daily attendance to determine a student count. For example, in Texas:
ADA = Sum of Attendance Counts ÷ Days of Instruction
It’s important to note that in all states, funding has other formulas and sources (for example, federal funding and/or weighted funding for students with disabilities).
As a practical matter, attendance is typically recorded daily in a school’s Student Information System.
The Challenge
The primary challenge is that attendance data will immediately become opaque by end users.
Staff, administrators, family members, community members, AND the students themselves don’t have an idea of the impact of missing school. Specifically, the impact the attendance has on state dollars (of course, missing school has a LARGE impact on student performance as well).
Most districts attempt to tackle this challenge with dreaded “spreadsheets from hell”. Someone on the team gathers the data, combines it with other sources, shares with folk, those folk copy it, and you keep you fingers crossed that the message is delivered. It’s like a bad game of telephone. And it takes a lot of time and effort.
The Transparency
When we work with districts, we integrate with a multitude of data sources. We build real-time dashboards that display a school’s ADA and the estimated cost of missing students.
Take this dashboard as an example.
A superintendent, principal, teacher, family member, or board member can view the estimated impact attendance has on funding. It’s immediately accessible. No spreadsheets and long labor hours are required.
Curious?
Want to learn more about Abre and how our solution finds money for school districts?
Even better, a district can model the ADDITIONAL money the will receive if they improve attendance rates by any number of percentage points. That makes a compelling narrative to the community.
Now What?
Knowing how attendance affects funding is only part of a district’s need. We’re often asked the question, “Now what?” What can be done to help get students to school?
First, a district can monitor “at-risk” or “at-promise” chronic absenteeism. There can even be different categories such as “Non-Chronic”, “Potentially Chronic”, and “Chronic.”
Then, the district can assign an Attendance Intervention Plan to put the actions in place to address the issue around attendance.
This district defined “Potential Chronic Absentee” as a student who missed 5 to 10% of all days.
Attendance Intervention plans usually involve a number of stakeholders. With Abre you can involve teachers at school, coaches, and even outside mentors from organizations like the YMCA, places of worship, and more!
Interested in Using an Abre Attendance Plan?
We have free Attendance Intervention Plans in our Marketplace.
In Short
Abre helps schools:
- Gather data around attendance
- Centralize the data in one location
- Shares the information with relevant stakeholders
- Finds cost savings
- And provides the necessary frameworks for getting kids to attend school.
If you’d like to learn more, visit https://abre.com.
