Goals for the Attendance Plan

1. A school's response for this section should be in SMART format for improving attendance for each category reported in the data tables.
• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Realistic/Rewarding
• Timely
2. Address early grades at your school level (K & 1, 6th Grade, 9th Grade). Analyze school-wide data to determine needs at grade levels and times of year when challenges occur more often.

School attendance data are provided reporting percent of students with satisfactory attendance, at-risk attendance, chronic absenteeism, and severe chronic absenteeism. The two-year trend allows for comparison of attendance over time and an indication of how strategies implemented to improve attendance are working.

Proactive Attendance Plan

-We encourage our students to be in attendance all day, every day.  We include this in our daily announcements, ParentLink messages and during each of our parent outreach nights.  Our students receive rewards for being in class and on time each day.  This is tracked via the Class Dojo website and the rewards are provided by our PTSA for students on a by-weekly basis.  

Our purpose is to increase the number of students in attendance each day.  Last year, 94% of our students attended 90% of all school days.  This year, we would like to be at the district average of 92%.  We received this data via the Dashboard Summary email that we receive each month from the Office of School Performance and Accountability.
 

• By June, 2019   Deerfield Beach Middle school will have 96% of our students attending 90% of all school days for the 2018-2019 school year.

Tier 1 Strategies for Attendance

Tier 1 Strategies for Attendance - Address all five core ingredients. Tier 1 is aimed at 100% of students, parents, school staff, and community stakeholders. This is where you cast a wide net. Strategies are general to reach the largest audiences and include all employees and stakeholders.

Tiered plans will include strategies and interventions for the 5 core ingredients.

• Monitor Data
• Engage Students and Families
• Recognize Good and Improved Attendance
• Provide Personalized Outreach
• Remove Barriers

Our teachers are responsible for monitoring the attendance of their students.  Once a student with an excessive number of unexcused absences is identified (3+ more per quarter), our School Counselors & School Social Worker make contact with parents to determine the reasons for the absences and provide the families with any available resources that may be. 

Tier 2 Strategies and Interventions to Improve Attendance

Tier 2 Strategies and Interventions to Improve Attendance - Address all five core ingredients. Tier 2 identifies students using early warning indicators to make connections with students and families at the onset of the school year or emergence of patterns of non-attendance. Early warning indicators include prior year chronic absenteeism, 3 or more absences in the first 4 weeks of enrollment, more than 10% of school days absent in any time period from the beginning of enrollment.

- Tier 2 represents between 10-20% of students at all schools in Broward County. This is true at individual schools and across the District.

- Chronic Absenteeism: Absent for 10% or more school days. These absences include excused, unexcused, and suspensions as days of instruction missed.

Tiered plans will include strategies and interventions for the 5 core ingredients.

• Monitor Data
• Engage Students and Families
• Recognize Good and Improved Attendance
• Provide Personalized Outreach
• Remove Barriers

These are identified by teachers and/or reports from the School Reports site.  After teachers identify a trend (5 or more in a month or 10+ in a quarter) they contact the parent, speak with the student and refer the student to guidance in order to determine whether there is something else going on that should be addressed.  

If a student is signed out early excessively (more than five times per quarter), the administrator is contacted by the front office staff to conference with the  address parent. Administration continues to monitor situation and follow-up with parents accordingly.

School Counselor & School Social Worker monitor for patterns of non-attendance via School Reports Website twice per quarter.  Personnel make coantact and follow-up with families to assess causal situations and provide direct or referral support for intervention through CPST. Administrators and guidance also conference with parents and students to examine factors such as age and grades and the correlation to accelration risks. Guidance and administrators work with parents to create, implement and monitor an intervention plan to support the student for success.

School Counselor & School Social Worker monitor chronic absenteeism via School Reports Website twice per quarter or as identified by teachers when a student has missed five or more days of school in quarter.  Personnel make coantact and follow-up with families to assess causal situations and provide direct or referral support for intervention through CPST. Administrators and guidance also conference with parents and students to examine factors such as age and grades and the correlation to accelration risks. Guidance and administrators work with parents to create, implement and monitor an intervention plan to support the student for success.

Tier 3 Interventions

Tier 3 Interventions - Address all five core ingredients. Tier 3 is the highest level of intervention and support for students that are absent 20% or more school days during the year.

- At most schools, Tier 3 interventions are utilized for about 5% (or less) of the student population.

Tiered plans will include strategies and interventions for the 5 core ingredients.

• Monitor Data
• Engage Students and Families
• Recognize Good and Improved Attendance
• Provide Personalized Outreach
• Remove Barriers

Tardy Interventions
1st Tardy: Warning
2nd Tardy: Classroom Consequence such as a detention, writing assignment etc. 
3rd Tardy: Parent Phone Call to make the parent aware fo the concern
4th Tardy: Guidance Referral so the School Counselor can speak with the student and parent to determine if something is going on that needs to be addressed
5th Tardy: Administrative Referral that applies an administrative consequence for cronic tardiness