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.

Based on our Dashboard data from the 2017-2018 school year, the rate of chronic and severely chronic absent students fell from 21.48% & 17.68% respectively, to 20.08% and 15.20% in the spring semester. We believe this decrease in chronic & severely chronic absenteeism is due to implementation of hall sweeps with greater fidelity, and a team approach to communicating with parents when students exhibited chronic and severely chronic absenteeism. Our goal this year is to decrease the % of chronically absent students from 20.08% to 10% (143 students) and to decrease the % of severely chronically absent students from 15.2% to 5% (72 students). 

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

The following Tier 1 strategies are being utilized for all students:

• Attendance Line (phone number) easily accessible on the school website
• Ms. Chandra Lee is the Attendance Manager.
• We promote attendance using our school's Twitter account, which is also linked to the home page of our website.
• We follow @BCPS_180 for attendance content designed for Broward Schools.
• During grade-level assemblies, we spotlight attendance information for the quarter and reward students for excellent attendance. Students earn HERO points for arriving to school on time and can use those incentive points to attend quarterly dances/parties, win prizes, and attend special field trips.
• We provide students with information about the importance of being in class every day (connected to academic readiness and future success) through information share through their personalization periods, through classroom guidance presentations. 
• All teachers are trained to take attendance accurately during pre-planning week.  We encourage all teachers to take attendance in a timely and accurate manner (Teacher Attendance Codes: P, PN, AU, TU) through e-mail reminders, PA announcements, and faculty meetings. 
• Students who have good attendance, and who show improved attendance, earn HERO points and can utilize those points to attend monthly and quarterly student reward parties. 
• Parents recieve a parent-link call whenever their child is absent from school. 
• Parents recieve e-newsletter with information about attendance and our attendance recognition programs. 

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

The following Tier 2 strategies are utilized for students with at-risk attendance and a history of chronic absenteeism:

• The Attendance committee meets monthly to monitor data  and assess underlying causes for continued absences.
• Staff engage students and parents through positive communication that supports a good relationship between the school and family through monthly SAC meetings, Parent Link announcements, newsletters, and face to face communications.
• Our school social worker, Collie Blake, and our Family Counselor, Ms. Dhuram, provide information about support from the Student Services Department within Broward Schools.
• Our social worker, guidance counselors, and administrators work with families to provide for needs such as food, clothing,  and academic programs.
• We provide personalized Early Outreach: our behavior specialist schedules conferences to discuss absences.
• Students who are are chronically absent meet with the behavior specialist and/or the school social worker and thier family to set attendance goals.
• We remove barriers to attendance: Our Social Worker, Family Counselor, School Resource Officer, guidance counselors, and administrators Involve public agencies and community partners to connect families with school and community-based resources.

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

The following Tier 3 strategies are utilized for students with chronic and severe absenteeism:

• The attendance committee monitors data monthly to Identify students that have a history of missing 20% or more of school and are at-risk due to other challenges.
• Our social worker determines if the student should have an agency involved (CINS/FINS or BTIP).
• Our social worker, family counselor, guidance counselors, school resource officer, and administrators refer students and families to appropriate agencies.
• We ensure students are connected with positive supports by connecting them to our school social worker, family counselor, guidance counselors, behavior specialist, and administrative staff as needed. The attendance committee assigns adults mentors for students and refers them to the appropriate mentoring groups on campus including Women of Tomorrow, Mentoring Tomorrow's Leaders, Carter Cares, S.W.A.G, and peer counselors.
• Students are placed on an attendance contract that is monitored by our behavior specialist and the attendance committee.