Explore how our partners are leveraging our solution to transform student outcomes

Nestled in south-central Connecticut, Hamden Public Schools serves a diverse student population across its 11 schools. Even before the pandemic, district leaders were keeping a close eye on attendance. But, post-pandemic chronic absenteeism surged. Sue Smey, Director of Media, Assessment, and Intervention knew it was time to re-focus on attendance and bring the entire district community together to help students be more present.

Like many schools across the country, Ho'okele experienced a sharp increase in chronic absenteeism following the pandemic. Recognizing that attendance is the foundation for student learning and success, school leaders—especially school counselor Elizabeth Okamoto—mobilized quickly to turn things around.

Located in Southern California about 30 miles east of Los Angeles, Glendora Unified School District serves over 6,500 students. Like many other districts in California and across the nation, Glendora faced elevated levels of chronic absenteeism in the post-Covid years. Over the past few years, Jocie Wilson, Director of Student & Family Support Services, has been leading the charge to improve attendance district-wide, with steady, sustainable success. 

Check out the winners of the first annual Attendance Innovation Awards and tune in on August 14 at 2 pm ET/11 am PT to hear directly from the educators at each of these districts and perhaps incorporate some of their winning strategies into your own attendance efforts in the 25-26 school year.

The Tangipahoa Parish School System (TPSS) serves 19,200 students across 34 campuses in southeastern Louisiana. After the pandemic it became clear that low student attendance was getting in the way of academic achievement. In the 23-24 school year, over 37% of Tangipahoa students were chronically absent, missing 10% or more school days. Recognizing that addressing chronic absenteeism would be necessary in order to increase academic achievement, Superintendent Melissa Stilley prioritized improvement as one of three strategic “rocks”, and TPSS launched a partnership with EveryDay Labs in 2024. The partnership was part of a pilot funded by the Louisiana State Department of Education to improve student attendance in select districts across the state. Over the first full year of the partnership, TPSS achieved incredible success, reducing the number of chronically absent students by 19% (6.8 percentage points), and increased attendance by over 43,000 days.

Located in southwestern Florida on the Gulf coast, the School District of Lee County is the 8th largest district in the state, serving over 100,000 students across grades K-12. Despite having done significant, successful work to slash their chronic absenteeism rates nearly in half pre-pandemic, the district faced the same post-pandemic chronic absenteeism challenges as many other districts nationwide. Paul Milford, Administrator of Social Work Services, was tasked with leading the charge to turn absenteeism around. Read on to discover how positive communications and better access to data re-engaged families and got more students back on track for better attendance.

Located just outside of Austin, Texas, Pflugerville ISD serves over 25,000 K–12 students across 35 schools and 2 alternative campuses. Like many districts nationwide, they’ve faced rising levels of chronic absenteeism. Rising to the challenge, Director of Student Affairs Dr. Amanda Castro knew to get the results the district desired, they’d need to make some big shifts and take a new approach. 

Facing elevated chronic absenteeism rates post-pandemic, the team needed a more efficient way to deliver excellent communications and meaningful touchpoints to their school community, all while meeting the myriad other demands of the Front Office. Read on to discover how the Alpha team shifted from sending DIY nudges to bringing a trusted partner on board to increase staff capacity and improve attendance.

On a mission to accelerate learning and transform student outcomes, DC Public Schools and participating DC Public Charter Schools have focused on reducing elevated chronic absenteeism rates through numerous initiatives. A critical piece of this strategy has been partnering with EveryDay Labs to send chronic absenteeism mail & text nudges on the district’s behalf. The exciting results of a randomized controlled trial conducted in Fall/Winter 2024 are in: chronic absenteeism rates were reduced by 6.3% amongst the students who received chronic absenteeism nudges. These nudges were also the most cost-effective method of attendance improvement. Read on for the full report!

As the year comes to a close and you begin planning for the next, why not incorporate some strategies from an educator just like you who is successfully working to improve attendance? Dr. Amanda Castro, Director of Student Affairs at the rapidly growing district of Pflugerville ISD, Texas, will be dropping in live on April 24 for just 30 minutes to share how the team is improving attendance districtwide through data systems that enable more efficient teamwork and strategic family outreach.

Last month, our partner at Berkeley Unified School District, Director of Student Services Dr. Phillip Shelley, joined us live to share how he is keeping the energy and attendance high through the spring months with a district-wide March Madness competition. If you missed it, read on for the highlights!

If you're looking to transform attendance across your district, check out how our partners in Portsmouth Public Schools in Virginia reduced chronic absenteeism by nearly half through better data systems and optimized teamwork. Read on to hear from Dr. Angela Flowers, Director of Student Services at Portsmouth as she shares her team's journey and success.

We partner with over 60 districts across the country to help them supercharge family engagement, build a strong culture of attendance, and transform student outcomes. Just like so many other educators, our district partners are busy juggling competing priorities and providing families and students the support they need for success. This year, we were thrilled to see some real progress across all of our partnerships. Read on for the highlights!

In the face of unprecedented absenteeism, educators across the country are trying out all kinds of campaigns, competitions, and committees to motivate their students and families to attend school more regularly. Some work better than others, and some even work much better than expected! Our friends at Berkeley Unified School District and Semitropic Elementary School shared some fun and effective attendance incentives that you might want to try at your district!

As we close out another school year for the history books, we reflect on the impact that the EveryDay Labs Platform has had on educators, students, and families nationwide in the 22-23 school year.

With more being asked from schools than ever before, our partners Chelsea Montgomery, ​​Executive Director of Student Services at Fulton County Schools and Sarah Peterson, Senior Director of Attendance, Research and Innovation, NYC Department of Education share how they have been employing new, scalable strategies to support students across their large districts.

Jennifer Kretschman, MTSS Director at Sacramento Unified School District, provides a look at how SUSD plans to rebuild positive attendance habits and engage students and families to overcome learning loss.