Attendance Matters

The Department's Educational Vision (EdVision ) aims for all students in Massachusetts, particularly students from historically underserved groups and communities, to have equitable opportunities to excel in all content areas across all grades. Strategic objectives that help advance this vision include supporting the Whole Student, engaging students in Deeper Learning, and developing a Diverse and Effective Workforce.

The Whole Student strategic objective, for example, includes partnering with districts, schools, and programs to: Cultivate systems to support the whole student and foster joyful, healthy, and supportive learning environments so that all students feel valued, connected, nourished, and ready to learn.

Efforts in this direction can help students be more engaged in school (e.g., academically, emotionally, socially, and physically), can help address barriers to being in school (e.g., by providing supports where needed), and can help increase attendance and decrease chronic absenteeism (by helping give more reasons to be in school, and help decrease challenges to coming to school). The Department infuses efforts that directly or indirectly help increase attendance throughout numerous initiatives across offices. A few examples are offered below.

Suspending students from school for non-violent offenses, and particularly suspending them repeatedly, takes them out of the classroom and may have limited effectiveness in improving their behavior and performance, and cause the students to fall behind academically.

School leaders in Massachusetts and across the U.S. have found that by improving school climate through positive behavioral interventions, supports, and strategies, including restorative practices and conflict resolution, they can not only reduce suspensions but also promote greater school safety, discipline, and academic success.

Informed by state and federal laws and regulations, this initiative brings together schools/districts identified based on high rates of suspension and/or expulsion (for long-term suspensions or disparate rates related to race/ethnicity or disability status) and offers a professional learning network (PLN) where educators and administrators can learn with and from each other.

The Social, Emotional, Behavioral Academy is a 3-year MTSS Academy that aims to help school and/or district teams cultivate joyful, culturally and linguistically sustaining learning environments and implement multi-tiered systems of social, emotional, and behavioral support.

Based on a needs assessment process related to effective practices for integrated student supports, schools identify focus areas for strengthening student support systems. Schools may identify chronic absenteeism as a focus area.

My Career and Academic Plan (MyCAP) is a process that engages and empowers students to own their future and seek out learning opportunities that align with individual interests, strengths, skills, and talents. As students understand themselves, they become better able to identify authentic career interests and develop goals for attainment.

MyCAP guides students as they map their academic plan, identify the personal/social skills necessary for workplace and life success, and identify and gain access to career development activities that will support them on their pathway to postsecondary success.