ParentSquare Helps Districts Address Challenge of Chronic Absenteeism With New Guide on Family Engagement Strategies To Encourage Healthy Attendance

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“Showing up for Success: Family Engagement Strategies for Chronic Absenteeism” includes research and practical communications-based strategies for dealing with increased rates of chronic absenteeism

Santa Barbara, CA—Sept. 25, 2024—Today, 1 in 4 students is chronically absent from school, meaning they miss at least 10 percent, or approximately 18 days, of the school year. Recently, RAND and the Center on Reinventing Public Education estimated that 9.4 million students (19%) were chronically absent during the 2023-2024 school year—putting them at higher risk for academic failure, poverty, and dropping out of high school.¹

To help educators proactively address the issue of chronic absenteeism, ParentSquare, the award-winning unified school-home engagement platform for K-12 education, has published a new guide for district leaders and educators titled “Showing up for Success: Family Engagement Strategies for Chronic Absenteeism.”

“The pandemic exacerbated the issue of chronic absenteeism at schools with existing attendance challenges, and schools that had never experienced high levels of chronic absences are now dealing with the issue,” said ParentSquare President and Founder Anupama Vaid. “As a trusted family engagement platform, our number one job is to help schools and districts reach and engage with families to power school-home initiatives that support student success. We know from our customers that chronic absenteeism is an increasingly critical area of concern for districts across the country, and this guide highlights some of the strategies they’ve successfully used to address the issue.” 

Most best practices for improving attendance rely on schools engaging with families. However, a ParentSquare benchmark survey on communications and engagement found that only 39% of schools and districts are reaching 90%-100% of parents and guardians. These findings show a significant need for practical strategies for reducing chronic absenteeism that schools and districts can realistically implement with the right communication and engagement tools at their disposal.

The ParentSquare guide to reducing chronic absenteeism uses this approach to outline actionable tactics schools can take, from preventing chronic absenteeism to managing it when it happens. Some of these tactics include:

• Engaging in regular communication with parents and guardians to build positive relationships and make families aware of resources and services they may need.
• Reducing information overload and striking the right balance between “too little” or “too much” information when communicating with students’ families.
• Notifying families of absence or tardiness in real time to facilitate the resolution of attendance issues.

“Forging strong partnerships with families is crucial to reducing chronic absenteeism,” said Vaid. “Our mission at ParentSquare is to provide schools and districts with the tools and resources they need to improve family engagement. This guide shows how doing so can help address one of the most pressing challenges affecting student success in K-12 today, and this is just the beginning. Our team is currently investing in more tools and resources to directly influence and reduce chronic absenteeism—we’re excited for what the future holds.”

About ParentSquare
ParentSquare is the leading provider of digital family and community engagement solutions for K-12 institutions, serving over 20 million students across all 50 states. Districts rely on ParentSquare’s unified platform for mass notifications, classroom communications, school websites, translation in 130+ languages, and other everyday parent interactions. Seamless integrations with existing school information systems (SIS) easily connect schools with families to advance communication equity and impact student success. Founded in 2011, ParentSquare has experienced over 500% growth in the last three years. Explore how it is shaping the future of school-home communications at parentsquare.com.

1. Are chronic absenteeism interventions working?
   (Arundel, 2024)