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.

Sawgrass Springs Middle will increase attendance to 60% on average, and try to maintain  Satisfactory attendance for the second quarter for the 2019.

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

A. Monitor Data • The administrator responsible for school attendance will ensure that all teachers have completed the Brainshark training for taking classroom attendance at the middle school level (6-8). The administrator should maintain a record of teachers that have completed the training. • Monitoring attendance-taking procedures will take place weekly by the Attendance Clerk and as requested by administration.
• Monitoring attendance-taking procedures will take place weekly by the Attendance Clerk and as requested by administration. • Twice each quarter, School Counselors will monitor BASIS and Data Warehouse to set goals for students in school-wide recognition's. This monitoring works as a back-up to assist in identifying students that may need.
Engage Students and Families: At the beginning of each month, the administrative team will request from the IMT to provide a report for current year attendance categories to monitor improvement and steer the direction of attendance initiative Engage Students and Families • School staff will be encouraged to reach out to parents by phone or email to remind parents about the importance of attendance in the early grades. • Principal will provide monthly updates via ParentLink and PTSA meetings regarding Average Daily Attendance and the Chronic Absenteeism categories, celebrating the students that are attending 95% or more. • Front office staff will meet each month to discuss customer service responsibilities and adapt procedures for ensuring a welcoming environment when visitors enter the front office (students, parents, guests, District staff). • School Twitter account will follow and re-Tweet relevant messages about attendance for our stakeholders. Messages on the school website will be positive and supportive. • The Attendance Phone line will be checked and cleared daily by the attendance clerk.
 

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

Monitor Data: In order to reduce the amount of students with excessive excused absences we plan to provide an Attendance Party at the end of each quarter for any of these students who have less excused absences as the year progresses. 
• Each week, the leadership team will review the non-attendance report from Opti-Spool during leadership meetings. Students will be identified, and teachers will be notified which of their students might be at-risk. • Weekly, using BASIS, the leadership team will identify students that have enough absences to be considered chronically absent. • Teachers will monitor attendance using Pinnacle and BASIS and consult with support staff for help in redirecting absenteeism behavior. • School Counselors, will monitor attendance with the leadership team to help identify students that may have a need for more wrap-around services.

Engage Students and Families • School Counselors, as part of the leadership team and support, will reach out by phone to speak with parents of chronically absent students to identify any needs for support to the family. • If needed, parents and student will work with the School Counselor or School Social Worker to develop a personalized “Student Success Plan for Attendance” to make sure the child doesn’t miss too many days and get back on track with good attendance. There is a correlation between good attendance and good academic performance. • Staff will help identify any family needs and connect the family with services (food pantry, clothing assistance, literacy programs, transportation).

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

Monitor Data: • Identify students with a history of severe chronic absenteeism (missing more than 20% of a school year). • Leadership team will monitor the non-attendance report from OptiSpool, data from BASIS to identify students that are missing too many school days. • Attendance data is one of the main metrics brought to discussion for Collaborative Problem-Solving Team (CPST) and Response-to-Intervention (RtI). Attendance data may help uncover bigger issues the student or family are experiencing.

Engage Students and Families • Refer students to appropriate service agencies (social services, human resources, counseling, housing, the HEART team for homeless education, or health services). • Share data with appropriate agencies and ensure that agencies are using chronic absence as an indicator for assisting families. • Utilize best practices from schools within the District that have been able to decrease chronic absences and increase satisfactory attendance. 

 Recognize Good and Improved Attendance • For the students at Tier 3, appropriate positive reinforcements will be included in their “Attendance Success Plan” to support continued improved attendance. This plan will be developed with the parents, School Counselor, and School Social Worker. Plans and goals will be shared with the child’s teachers. • Tangible incentives may be utilized to help students and parents improve attendance.
We   alsoprovide a Gator Growl, which is a free dance and basketball tournament, at the end of each quarter. The students are encoruaged  to attend the Gator Growl by having 0 referrals for the quarter. Excessive tardiness, or 5 or more tardies, is a referable offense, In addition, we plan to reduce the amount of students with excessive tardiness each quater.