The student attendance rate at Phillips Elementary School was already fairly high at 96.9%, but the team wanted to make sure that students were only absent for valid reasons.
The Challenge
Nestled among the vineyards in the town of Napa, California, lies Phillips Elementary. This school serves 534 students from prekindergarten to grade 6, most of which are Latino and are English language learners. The student attendance rate at Phillips Elementary School was already fairly high at 96.9%, but the team wanted to make sure that students were only absent for valid reasons to ensure that they would benefit from the excellent instruction occurring each day. They also wanted to emphasize the importance of arriving at school on time.
The Solution
The staff at Phillips Elementary has instituted a tiered approach to maintain their high attendance rate and decrease tardies.
First, they use the SFA scope and focus to ensure that the needs of all students are addressed through school-wide incentives for daily on time attendance. Rewards are provided for students who are on time every day. Students earn attendance certificates or tags that they can attach to their backpacks indicating 100% on-time attendance. They are also entered into drawings for special activities. Photos of all of students that have 100% attendance are sent to the local newspaper to be published.
Attendance is also recognized at the classroom level. Each class also works toward filling in a chart to reach their goal of100% attendance. When the goal is met, the class receives a celebration prize.
The Community Connections team has established and is maintaining a very strong relationship with the local Rotary Club. The principal and rotary club meeting attended one of the Rotary Club's weekly meetings and asked them to support the school with incentives. Because parents are such an important piece of the attendance puzzle they have held drawings each trimester for Walmart gift cards, which were donated by local business partners, to give to parents who help to ensure that their kids arrive at school on time every day.
The second tier serves a smaller number of students that have been identified as needing additional interventions due to chronic tardiness or absenteeism. After sending out a letter, the administrators, rotary club meeting and counselor work together as a team to meet with the family of each identified student and develop plans to help improve attendance.
For the highest-need students they have held Student Success Team meetings and conducted home visits. For some students, they even knock on doors in the morning to help get them up and moving!