When nearly 40% of Sheehy Elementary students were identified as chronically absent at the start of the school year, the staff refused to see this as the new normal. Instead, they viewed it as an opportunity to reengage families and make school a place students were excited to be. With support from the Hillsborough Education Foundation site-based attendance grant, the team focused on strengthening communication and building a culture of belonging.
Parent updates went out through digital channels and car-line handouts, and teachers introduced weekly and monthly incentives that brought joy into the school day. Hallway dance parties, lawn games, morning-show shoutouts, and attendance celebrations helped remind students that showing up matters.
The impact was immediate. As the assistant principal shared, “Several students who had attendance concerns in the previous year had a positive response to this year’s attendance incentives. In return, these scholars did well on their end of year assessments and the data show as we have moved from a school grade of an F two years ago, to a D last year, now projected to be a solid C.”
Thanks to the generous support of the Helios Education Foundation, the Consortium of Florida Education Foundations is working alongside three urban education foundations to tackle one of the most urgent challenges in education today, chronic absenteeism.
The research reveals five critical findings that fundamentally challenge conventional thinking about attendance interventions:
1. Understanding the Evidence Base Is Necessary but Not Sufficient. While the research literature on chronic absenteeism is extensive and provides critical insights, knowing what the research says does not automatically translate into successful implementation. Districts must master both the evidence base and implementation realities.
2. Chronic Absenteeism Represents a Symptom of Systemic Challenges. Attendance patterns reflect complex interactions among economic instability, health disparities, housing insecurity, and community violence. Narrowly focused, school-centric interventions have limited effectiveness; schools cannot solve chronic absenteeism independently.
3. Post-Pandemic Shifts Require Innovative, Systemic Approaches. The pandemic transformed how families view school attendance. Districts must acknowledge these shifts rather than attempting to restore previous norms; instead, they should develop new value propositions for in-person learning through engaging experiences and meaningful relationships.
4. Authentic Community Voice and Partnership Prove Essential for Effectiveness. Interventions developed with authentic community participation achieve significantly better outcomes than those imposed without meaningful input. True partnership requires shared decision-making power and a willingness to be influenced by community wisdom.
5. Implementation Quality Through Continuous Improvement Outweighs Program Selection on Its Own. Implementation quality predicts outcomes more strongly than specific program models. Districts achieving sustained improvements invest in implementation infrastructure, maintain interventions through initial challenges, and treat interventions as hypotheses
to be tested through continuous improvement cycles.
For more information about this project or the newly published report contact Consortium’s President and CEO, Amity Schuyler.
