School Attendance
Information for Educators
Improving student presence and engagement must be a school-wide and classroom based focus. There is no one strategy that will work for all students and all schools. Educators must locally develop strategies that are responsive to the community, school and classroom needs.
What Teachers Can Do
Teachers are privileged to have the primary contact and relationship with students and their families and have a critical role in enhancing and improving student presence and engagement.
Proactive and Preventative Practices to Consider:
- Create a safe, welcoming, and culturally responsive classroom environment. Student engagement is strengthened through a strong sense of belonging and acceptance.
- Put students at the centre of all planning and responses.
- Use the classroom profile process to get to know each student's learning strengths and needs; ensure teaching and assessment practices are 'just right' for the student and are meeting the student's academic, social, emotional, and behavioural needs.
- Celebrate student diversity.
- Create a growth mindset classroom environment where mistakes are viewed as opportunities for learning.
- Document and respond to student unexcused absences immediately; notice when students are away and welcome them back warmly when they return.
- Utilize restorative practices in your classroom.
- Show students you care. Foster a classroom culture characterized by student voice and shared decision-making to help students feel connected and want to come to school.
- Seek to understand; work with students and families to identify barriers to school presence and engagement. Work collaboratively with the student, family, school, and divisional supports to respond to and support student presence and engagement.
What School Leaders Can Do
School leadership is integral in leading, enhancing, and supporting school cultures that are safe, welcoming, and culturally responsive to students, staff, families, and community. School leaders have a critical role in supporting and enhancing student presence and engagement and leading responsive planning to identify and respond to barriers that impact student presence and engagement in school.
Proactive and Preventive Practices to Consider:
- Create a safe, welcoming, and culturally responsive school environment. Student, staff and family engagement is strengthened through a strong sense of belonging and acceptance.
- Seek to understand; work collaboratively with students, families, and staff to identify barriers to school presence and engagement. Create collaborative partnerships with the family, community, and external agencies to respond to and support student presence and engagement.
- Ensure teachers maintain accurate attendance records.
- Monitor and review student attendance data and oversee the student-specific planning process, including the assignment of a case manager for students experiencing chronic absenteeism.
- Establish a tiered intervention model to support and enhance student presence and engagement.
- Include student voice in school planning and include student engagement as a component of the plan.
- Improve student connection to the school through extracurricular activities that meet a broad spectrum of interests.
- Utilize restorative practices in your school.
- Report chronic/severe chronic absenteeism to your school division.
- Invite community agencies, organizations and associations, other education authorities, and regional health and children's services authorities to plan collaboratively in support of appropriate educational programming and planning for students.
- Lead school-based attendance initiatives.
