school attendance home visit letter

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Pupil welfare – When should you make a house call?

• Daniel Jarrett looks at what ought to happen when concerns over a pupil’s welfare prompt a visit to their home...

There are myriad reasons that could warrant the need for a home visit by school representatives and practitioners, and every school will respond to such concerns differently.

There will usually be professionals with responsibility for different areas, such as an attendance lead, a pastoral lead or family support worker.

Depending on the situation, conversations will need to be had as to which member of staff is most suited to undertake a particular home visit. Sometimes it might be a member of staff who’s had a previous working relationship with the family in question.

Some practitioners might arrange a series of home visits with families. One example might be to ensure that children are ready in the mornings and perhaps even walk them to school, thus establishing a routine that the family may later be able to take on themselves.

There needs to be a thorough awareness of the possible risks when undertaking a home visit. These might include inaccessible entrances; any hazards associated with the property; pets that could be dangerous or particular relatives and individuals known to frequent the property.

Anything that could pose a risk to a practitioner completing a home visit needs to be discussed formally, noted in writing and checked ahead of time.

This information can be sourced from existing school records, other professionals who have previously worked with the family, or the telephone call that should be made to the family in advance, notifying them of the date and time of the home visit.

Initial visits

A professional entering a property for the first time should never do so on their own – it’s important that there be at least two professionals present to assess the risk and support each other in the event of any incidents.

It’s also worth noting that if there are any dangers associated with the property, it’s best that the conversation be conducted on the doorstep unless there’s an absolute need to enter.

Thankfully we’re not aware of any home visits that have gone wrong or given rise to a major issue of concern. On occasion, some practitioners have stated being uncomfortable with undertaking a home visit due to the risks involved, and instead arranged to meet families in school or passed the matter on to the police.

From my experience as a former practitioner and now Safeguarding Manager, I’ve always been impressed by the willingness of schools to undertake joint home visits.

It’s just a case of ensuring that the potential risks are reduced as much as possible, and that appropriate (and regularly updated) policies be put in place to ensure that practitioners undertaking home visits are effectively supported.

The majority of schools will have a lone working policy of some kind; if not, that’s something they can look into.

Common reasons for home visits

1 Persistent lateness If a child’s lack of punctuality in the mornings indicates issues with the family’s daily routine

2 Low attendance Prolonged absences of three to five days with no contact from parents may require a police referral

3 Lack of engagement Persistent failure by the child’s family to attend parents’ evenings or other school meetings

4 Visible signs of distress If a child’s outward appearance raises concerns regarding ill health, neglect or abuse

Daniel Jarrett is former safeguarding manager at School Home Support . Follow the charity on Twitter at @shsorguk .

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Best Practices in Conducting Safe Home Visits

The problem.

Advantages of Home Visits

About abilene isd.

For both efficient and safe home visits, this experienced and dedicated team breaks the intervention into three stages: 1) PreVisit , 2) On Location , and 3) Departure . 

Plan your trip using a reliable mapping program for arrival and departure in daylight hours, and ensure you have knowledge of the area/neighborhood concerns. Assure the vehicle you are taking is in good working order and has adequate fuel.

RaaWee Attendance+ includes a Mobile App with a powerful feature that assists with this route mapping.

The application of this OODA Loop methodology is strongly recommended for all Home Visits.

Use the following practical application. Upon arrival prior to parking, drive by the home. If it looks unsafe, do not proceed with the home visit. Document the situation. When proceeding with the home visit, park selectively. Do not block anyone’s parking or driveway. Park in an area that will be easy to exit.

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RaaWee Attendance+ (previously known as RaaWee K12 Truancy & Dropout Prevention System (TDPS)), is a comprehensive collaboration platform that implements student attendance and participation improvement strategies. This robust and scalable platform provides school districts with essential best practices and robust tools for preventing chronic absenteeism and truancy, regardless of the District’s education delivery model – At School, Online, or Hybrid Learning.

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RaaWee Attendance+ (also known as RaaWee K12 Truancy & Dropout Prevention System (TDPS)), is a comprehensive collaboration platform, that implements student attendance and participation improvement strategies. The most robust and scalable platform provides school districts with essential best practices and robust tools for preventing chronic absenteeism and truancy, regardless of the District’s education delivery model – Online, At-School Learning, or Hybrid.

• RAAWEE ATTENDANCE+

Dr. Carolyn Gentle-Genitty, founder, lead consultant, and Chief Education Officer for  Pivot Attendance Solutions , has inspired many administrators, educators, students, and school social workers as a past chair of the school’s concentration Masters Curriculum, tenured professor, and Director of the Bachelors for Social Work Program. Having worked closely with Indiana Department of Education to assist school counselors in acquiring a school counselor license and coordinating curriculum mapping and application, she knows the intricacies of working with school-community partnerships. She has been a forerunner in responding to school absenteeism, truancy, and social bonding. She has over 30 years in youth development, 20 years in dropout and truancy and more specifically she brings over 12 years studying, researching, presenting, and writing about absenteeism locally, nationally, and internationally. In the US she is a leader in absenteeism and understanding school attendance problems and translating such into practice models for implementation. She is forging partnerships in colleges to establish the area as a formal field of study.

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• Attendance checklist for schools

Recommended attendance tasks for schools to carry out:

• Complete AM registers starting with Y5/6 walk to school children
• First day calling - record reasons for absences and select code in the register
• Inform the pupil’s social worker if there are any unexplained absences and if their name is to be deleted from the register
• 1st follow-up text/emails
• Attach copies of evidence to pupil records
• Complete registers PM after lunch break
• 2nd follow-up text/emails

Day 3 of unexplained absence

• Start reasonable enquiry CME Process
• Contact link attendance officer for advice.
• Consider vulnerability of family i.e., SEND, pupil with social worker etc.
• Conduct home visit

All schools should have arrangements in place to undertake their own home visit in line with attendance guidelines - Working together to improve school attendance - GOV.UK ( www.gov.uk ) Home visits should be conducted as soon as possible after the third day of absence and must be carried out by the tenth day

• Follow-up N codes and missing marks within 5 school days
• Process leavers
• Leavers & Joiners Report
• Complete attendance tracker
• Process exceptional leave applications.
• Identify persistent absentees and severe absentees (<50%). Flag to member of SLT for attendance.
• Consider referral via Gateway to Ealing attendance service.
• Meet with Dedicated Attendance Lead
• Celebrate attendance. Rewards, certificates, newsletter, assemblies etc.
• Identify persistent absentees and severe absentees
• Ealing focus groups 2023-24: Black Caribbean pupils, Mixed (White & Black Caribbean) pupils, Black Somali pupils and White boys
• Analyse punctuality

Agree actions with dedicated attendance Lead:

• Letter writing (Under 95%, Under 90%, Lates)
• Hold parent meetings.
• Attendance contract
• Consider referral via Gateway to Ealing Attendance Service.
• Make referrals via Gateway for fixed penalty notices for unauthorised leave.

Run official register report

• Ealing school attendance targeting support meeting (Dedicated attendance lead to attend)
• Attendance network meeting
• Report data to headteacher/ governors
• Communicate attendance statistics ‘in real terms’ to the whole school community.
• Send attendance policy (parent version) to whole school.
• Registers inspected by the named link attendance officer
• High school applications Apply for high school (primary to high school transfer)
• Census School census | Ealing Grid for Learning (egfl.org.uk)
• Autumn Term - Reception non-arrivals Reporting September reception class and year 7 non-arrivals
• Spring Term - Reception applications Apply for primary school (reception class) or infant to junior school transfer

Each academic year

• Populate the tracker with benchmark data at the start of the academic year
• Review whole school ethos
• Review school attendance policy (parent version)
• Complete SLA with school attendance officer
• Set targets and inform school community
• Assign a member of SLT with specific responsibility for attendance
• Assign a Governor with specific responsibility for attendance
• Autumn Term - Reception non-arrivals Reporting September reception class and year 7 non-arrivals | Ealing Grid for Learning (egfl.org.uk)

Further guidance

• Please contact your link attendance officer for further information.
• More information on Attendance | Ealing Grid for Learning (egfl.org.uk)
• More information on Children missing education (CME) | Ealing Grid for Learning (egfl.org.uk)

Important reminders

• Leavers should be processed and followed-up on a rolling basis as quickly as possibly for safeguarding purposes and to maintain school attendance as data cannot be backdated.
• In line with new guidance, N codes should be followed up within 5 days Working together to improve school attendance (publishing.service.gov.uk)
• School attendance service : [email protected]

Services for children

• Raising SEN support expectations
• Roles and responsibilities
• Quality first teaching
• Broad area of needs
• Interventions and approaches
• Useful SEND web links
• Glossary of SEND terms
• ELP SEND and inclusion committee
• ELP SEN and inclusion key dates
• Ealing’s strategy for additional and SEND and inclusion 2023-2027
• Special school and ARP and SEN unit provision in Ealing
• SEN وإدراج مقاطع الفيديو باللغة البنجابية
• સેન અને પંજાબીમાં વિડિઓઝનો સમાવેશ કરે છે
• SEN ਅਤੇ ਵੀਡੀਓ ਨੂੰ ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ਵਿੱਚ ਸ਼ਾਮਲ ਕਰਦਾ ਹੈ
• SEN மற்றும் பஞ்சாபியில் வீடியோக்களை சேர்க்கிறது
• SEN bulletin May 2024
• SEN bulletin April 2024
• SEN bulletin March 2024
• SEN bulletin February 2024
• SEN bulletin January 2024
• SEN Bulletin December 2023
• SEN bulletin issues
• SEN provision in the future
• SENCO bitesize sessions
• SEND and inclusion key documents
• SEND and inclusion resources
• How to access the SEND professional portal
• SENCO guide to the parent and young person’s portal
• SEND professional portal FAQs
• SEND who's who
• Teachers support for austistic pupils
• Allegations against staff and volunteers
• Children in need/ child protection response issues
• Education of children outside of their normal age group
• School Admissions Module (SAM) admissions database
• EAP supporting pupils with medical needs policy
• Monitoring and quality assurance of alternative provision placements
• Checklist when choosing an alternative provision
• Attendance missed and the impact on pupil's learning
• Attendance tracker
• Ealing school attendance network meeting
• Flexi schooling
• Leave of absence in term time and fixed penalty notices update
• BMF learning library
• Child and adolescent mental health service (CAMHS)
• Child missing out on education (CMOE)
• Child protection advisers
• Children looked after (CLA) network meeting
• Pupil premium grant for looked after children
• Think Equal
• Virtual school for children looked after and care leavers
• Virtual school for children with a social worker
• Virtual school teacher allocations
• Children missing education (CME) reasonable enquiry form
• Children missing education (CME) referral flow
• Elective home education (EHE) off-rolling
• In-year applicant - non-coordinated schools only
• Reasonable journey time to and from school
• Reporting September reception class and year 7 non-arrivals
• Statutory weekly leavers and joiners
• Deletions from admission register
• Leavers tasks and referrals checklist
• Transfer leaver's files and get receipts
• Pupils on extended, unauthorised leave abroad - Letters in SEN schools
• Pupils on extended, unauthorised leave abroad - Letters for mainstream schools
• Children's services duty contact numbers
• Cultural Education Partnership
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• Ealing community partners referral hub
• Ealing primary centre outreach service referrals
• Ealing young carers
• ARP for Autism / SLCN in high schools
• Developmental language disorder ARP
• SRP level 1 needs Autism / SLCN
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• Level A descriptor
• Level B descriptor
• Level C descriptor
• Level D descriptor
• Level E descriptor
• Level F descriptor
• Level G descriptor
• Level H descriptor
• Level I descriptor
• Level J descriptor
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• Early years speech and language therapy
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• Allegations against staff and volunteers (ASV)
• Safeguarding resources
• Social Workers in Schools (SWIS) programme
• Photography and publicity
• Designated safeguarding leads lightning briefings
• ECIRS and MASH process where timely or satisfactory response not met
• Ealing school nurses training modules
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• School safe scheme
• Climate change and COP26
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• PlayStreets for schools
• Tackling parent parking issues
• Useful links
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• Speech and language therapy workshops for parents
• Teenage pregnancy
• Therapeutic Thinking Impact Report – Spring 2024

• Cambridgeshire Services To Schools
• Cambridgeshire Attendance Support Team

Template Letters

The use of a letter system should be used alongside a range of parent and pupil preventative interventions and is intended to enable schools to continuously and consistently monitor and address poor attendance.

The system offers schools the opportunity to target non-attendance methodically and progressively up to and including the point at which a referral to the local authority may be necessary. The system is based on model letters that can be adapted by schools to be sent to parents when there are concerns about any emerging patterns of absenteeism.

For further information on the letter system please see link in box below: 

Local Authority School Attendance Leaflet

Sample letters are available below:, examples of attendance policies.

• Accessibility Statement
• Education service privacy notice
• CambsEYC Provider Updates
• Cambridgeshire Primary Offer

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Attendance guidance for schools.

Educational settings undertake an array of work to improve good attendance by providing information, guidance and support to parents/carers and children. We have produced an Attendance Policy, which sets out the city’s vision of working together to improve attendance in:

• early years settings

Attendance Policy ( PDF , 237.0KB )

Attendance Policy & Procedures

A good robust Attendance Policy will set out what the law says about attendance, what your rules are and how they are used. It should include what processes you will use to monitor attendance, how you will address attendance concerns and who will undertake roles.

By creating and sharing this in a shortened form with parents/carers you will make clear your expectations.

It is important that your educational setting has a process to follow when dealing with attendance and punctuality concerns. Having a set of standard letters for when specific concerns arise can be helpful and show progression from a general to a specific concern. This can also provide evidence should further action be required.

Attendance Policy Template ( WORD , 86.5KB )

We have produced some resources to promote good attendance and punctuality. Having these on display and giving out leaflets at events will show how important the attendance message is.

Competitions between year groups or classes can help raise attendance, displaying targets and celebrating success.

Support for your school

Attendance and Inclusion Officers (A&I) work with educational settings to support the attendance and punctuality work you do. Each primary and secondary school has a named A&I officer who will maintain regular contact, contactable whenever you need advice or support.

For Early Years settings we can offer advice and support for you to set up your attendance protocols, monitoring systems and provide ongoing support when you need us. A&I Officers can give advice around protocols, guidance and are available for any questions or clarifications around day to day practice. We will share good practice with you and offer ideas and suggestions to help monitor and intervene where necessary.

A&I Officers provide training and support to colleagues working with families when there are attendance concerns, and use consultation sessions to discuss individual pupils’ issues and help plan their approach.

A&I Officers with a social work qualification (A&I SWQ) lead on the legal aspect of working with attendance, from advice to schools and families through to legal action including Penalty Notice fines and prosecution in Magistrates’ Court in conjunction with the legal department of Sheffield City Council. They also support  our Children Looked After (CLA) and are CLA champions.

Addressing absence

Effective monitoring of attendance and punctuality assists with the early identification of pupil absence. Your named member of staff should check registers, monitor absence and contact parent/carers when there are concerns.

Examples of this early intervention are:

• first day calling
• home visits
• monitoring letters
• school meetings

If attendance and punctuality concerns continue despite offers of support it would be usual to consider a referral to the Family Intervention Service for allocation to a worker. You should be able to show what the issues are, that you have highlighted concerns to parents/carers and what has been tried. 

Schools Guidance for Management of Attendance ( PDF , 404.4KB )

Contact Prevention and Early Intervention Team

Want to talk to someone right now, supporting documents.

Fixed penalty notices code of conduct (2015) ( PDF , 368.3KB )

Holiday penalty notice request form ( WORD , 93.5KB )

Children in Employment and Entertainment Headteacher Guide ( PDF , 220.6KB )

Exceptional Leave During Term Time ( PDF , 754.4KB )

Request to remove child from School Request to remove child from School Roll ( WORD , 114.9KB )

Letter templates ( WORD , 28.5KB )

School Checklist to locate Missing Pupils ( WORD , 19.3KB )

Notification of term time leave form ( WORD , 19.9KB )

You might also like… Attendance guidance for parents Attending school & truancy Children in entertainment

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• Childcare and parenting
• Schools and education

School attendance and absence

You must make sure your child gets a full-time education that meets their needs (for example if they have special educational needs). You can send your child to school or educate them yourself .

Children must get an education between the school term after their 5th birthday and the last Friday in June in the school year they turn 16.

You’ll be contacted by either:

• the school - if your child is enrolled in school and does not turn up (even if they’re only absent for a day)
• the council’s education welfare officer - if they think your child is not getting a suitable education at home

You can be prosecuted if you do not give your child an education. You’ll normally get warnings and offers of help from the local council first.

You can get education and attendance information from your council .

When your child can miss school

You can only allow your child to miss school if either:

• they’re too ill to go in
• you’ve got advance permission from the school

There’s extra support available if your child cannot go to school for long periods because of a health problem.

Holidays in term time

You have to get permission from the head teacher if you want to take your child out of school during term time.

You can only do this if:

• you make an application to the head teacher in advance (as a parent the child normally lives with)
• there are exceptional circumstances

It’s up to the head teacher how many days your child can be away from school if leave is granted.

You can be fined for taking your child on holiday during term time without the school’s permission.

School trips

Your child’s school can ask you for a voluntary contribution to the cost of activities like school trips. They cannot stop your child from attending if you do not pay, but they should cancel the activity if there is not enough money to cover the cost of it.

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Kindergartners are missing a lot of school. This district has a fix

Cory Turner

A California school is addressing chronic absenteeism at the root

Selma Herndon Elementary School kindergarten teacher Diana Dickey starts the day each morning by asking students to share how they are feeling. Preston Gannaway for NPR hide caption

In rural Livingston, Calif., where people are vastly outnumbered by sweet potatoes, something remarkable is happening in the public schools.

When kindergarten teacher Lupe Fuentes tells her class they have perfect attendance for the day, the roomful of children cheer, “Hip, hip hooray, everybody’s here today!”

The kids missing the most amount of school may surprise you: kindergarteners

Nearby, gathered on the learning rug in teacher Diana Dickey’s classroom, the kindergartners aren’t cheering: They’ve just been told one of their classmates is absent. Sick, perhaps – though Dickey isn’t sure yet. A few children seem concerned.

Dickey reminds them to keep the absent boy in their hearts. On the whiteboard, she has drawn a large, dry-erase heart. Above it is a gallery of small, magnetized photos – one for every child in the class. Dickey and the class then move the absent boy’s photo inside the heart.

“Boom, boom, pow,” they sing together, to the absent boy. “We miss you, and we wish you well.”

On the whiteboard, kindergarten teacher Diana Dickey has drawn a large, dry-erase heart. Above it is a gallery of small, magnetized photos – one for every child in the class. When a student is absent, their photo is moved into the heart. Preston Gannaway for NPR hide caption

These attendance ceremonies may seem small, but they send a powerful message to every child in class: In Livingston, when you miss school, you’re not just absent – you’re missed .

In many K-12 schools across the country, an alarming number of children have been chronically absent – an old problem that COVID-19 made much, much worse. To be considered chronically absent, a student must miss at least 10% of the school year, usually around 18 school days. According to an analysis by the American Enterprise Institute , more than 1 in 4 students across the U.S. was chronically absent during the 2022-23 school year.

One of the hardest-hit grades might surprise you: kindergarten.

Kindergarten teacher Lupe Fuentes waits with students for class to start at Selma Herndon Elementary. Preston Gannaway for NPR hide caption

In California, for example, more than 1 in 3 kindergartners was chronically absent. But the tiny town of Livingston, in California’s sprawling Central Valley, is an outlier – and a powerful lesson in the ways a district can proactively prevent wide-scale absenteeism.

“We were just wowed by what we saw the moment we set foot on Livingston’s campuses,” says Sujie Shin with the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence.

Shin reviewed attendance data for all of California’s roughly 1,000 school districts, searching for solutions to the absenteeism crisis. She noticed Livingston’s kindergarten absenteeism rate was much lower – nearly 10 percentage points lower – than the state average. She wondered what they were doing that was so right ?

The short answer is: a lot. Here are three things.

1. Teaching young parents that kindergarten attendance matters

During the pandemic, many parents didn’t send their children to preschool or day care, which means they weren’t forming consistent attendance habits until kindergarten.

Kindergarten teacher Lupe Fuentes kneels down to tie a student’s shoe. Preston Gannaway for NPR hide caption

“For many families, especially post-pandemic, this is the first time you’re actually sharing the responsibility of nurturing and raising your child with another human being,” says Hedy Chang, who founded the nonprofit initiative Attendance Works. She’s considered one of the smartest people in the country when it comes to understanding chronic absenteeism.

Chang says some kindergarten families simply don’t understand how important it is to be consistent.

With 'chronic absenteeism' soaring in schools, most parents aren’t sure what it is

“Attendance is a lot about laying down the line and saying, ‘Hey, we’re gonna get my kid to school every day. And I’m gonna partner with my teacher so this is both engaging and we have the supports we need,’” Chang says. “When we have that experience in kindergarten, we lay the foundation for our future.”

The opposite is also true. Chang warns that poor attendance can have a long-term impact. “Chronic absence in kindergarten is associated with not being as likely to read or count proficiently in third grade. ”

Mayte Ramírez, a principal at one of Livingston’s elementary schools, will often pick up the phone and call the families of absent kindergartners with a warning: Missing one day of kindergarten is like missing three.

“The day that they were absent,” Ramírez says, “that’s a whole day.” The second day, they may come back, but they’re so busy catching up, they miss new material. “On the third day, they’re still trying to catch up! So they’re missing three days of instruction. And for littles, that’s huge.”

Students head to class at Selma Herndon Elementary in Livingston, Calif. Preston Gannaway for NPR hide caption

One Livingston mom, Yolanda, says she learned this lesson the hard way. We agreed to only use Yolanda’s first name because it can be hard to talk about absenteeism. She says that two years ago, when her daughter was in kindergarten, Yolanda let her miss a lot of school. Her daughter wasn’t necessarily sick; there were times she simply didn’t want to go. By the time her daughter got to first grade, she struggled with reading and writing.

“I realized I shouldn’t have [let her miss class],” Yolanda says. “Now that I have my 5-year-old [son] in kindergarten, I do not let him miss school. He’s only missed one day. So that he doesn’t struggle like his sister.”

2. Helping parents make sense of pandemic health rules

During COVID, families were often told: If your child seems sick, keep them home.

Now though, absenteeism has become an epidemic, and schools are telling families: Unless your child is really sick (fever, vomiting or diarrhea), they should be in class. It’s a big change, says Rafael Bautista, the father of another Livingston kindergartner.

Diana Dickey greets students on their way into class. Preston Gannaway for NPR hide caption

When one of his kids gets the sniffles, he wonders, “Should I send them to school like that? Or should I just make sure he is fine? You know? And also, I mean, allergies … you don’t know! Our kids get sick very often.”

Livingston has a fix for all this confusion. Her name is Lori Morgan, and she’s the district’s top nurse. She gives families her personal cell number and tells them, if in doubt, call her.

“I was on vacation [recently],” Morgan says with a smile. “I was on the phone and on email with a dozen parents. Yeah, I’m never really off .”

In Livingston, Nurse Lori, as she's known, tells families they don’t have to decide if their child is too sick for school. Just meet her or a member of her health staff in the school parking lot.

“You don’t even have to get out of the car. Just stay in the car,” Morgan tells families. “We’ll come out and check your child out.”

These teens were missing too much school. Here's what it took to get them back

She may take their temperature, ask a few questions. If a child is truly sick, Morgan says, she helps families get a quick doctor’s appointment at the local health clinic. But, she laughs, “99% of the time they’re well enough to stay.” And so she walks them to class.

In Livingston schools, building relationships with families isn’t a side project. It’s fundamental. And it isn’t just Morgan. Each school site employs a dedicated parent liaison. And at morning drop-off, kindergarten parents are allowed to enter the closed campus and walk their children to a waiting teacher.

“Our families have a close connection to our schools , ” says Superintendent Andres Zamora, who is wrapping up his 15th year in Livingston.

3. Making school a place children want to be

Helping parents see the value of kindergarten and understand post-pandemic health rules can boost attendance, sure. But the most important thing schools can do is make sure kids want to be there.

“ She is excited for school every morning,” says Erika Zurita, whose daughter is in kindergarten in Livingston. “This spring break, she kept asking me, ‘Are we going to school tomorrow? I miss my teacher, my school, my classmates.’ She loves it.”

Lupe Fuentes (left) and Yesenia Covarrubias teach a lesson on courage. Preston Gannaway for NPR hide caption

How in the world do you do that? Sujie Shin, with the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence, says the research is clear: One of the best predictors of a child’s success in school is how they answer one, simple question.

“Is there an adult at school that cares about you? Yes or no? That’s it,” Shin says. “That’s the question that can tell you everything.”

Battling student absenteeism with grandmas, vans and a lot of love

And in Livingston, Shin says, it’s clear that teachers and school leaders share “this real intense focus on creating and maintaining relationships every single moment possible.”

At her school, Principal Mayte Ramírez waits outside during morning drop-off, the first face many kids see as they emerge from the bus or idling cars. She flits easily between English and Spanish, which puts many families at ease as more than 80% of the district’s children are Hispanic. It’s not uncommon to hear Ramírez call a child “my heart” or “mi corazón.”

When an SUV pulls up a few minutes late, Ramírez finds a little boy in the back seat, folded into a ball of anxiety. He does not want to go to school, and his mother isn’t sure what to do. But Principal Ramírez knows him – and the boy knows her. She opens the rear door, leans all the way in and gently extends her hand to the little boy.

“Come and help me, my love,” Ramírez says.

The little boy unfolds himself, takes his principal’s hand and steps out of the car. Ramírez repays his trust by walking him through the front gates and all the way to his classroom.

On the way, she assures him, “You’re gonna have a great day.”

Audio stories produced by Lauren Migaki

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New Analysis: Building Relationships During Home Visits Improved Attendance During the Pandemic

A home visiting program in Connecticut public schools conducted during the Covid-19 pandemic improved student attendance rates by approximately 4 percentage points overall in the month following the visit, compared with pre-pandemic levels. Results of an analysis of the program show that attendance continued to rise in the following months.

What’s more, nine months after the first home visit, students in grades PreK-5 experienced approximately an eight-percentage point increase in attendance. Students in grades 6-12 experienced approximately a sixteen-percentage point increase, suggesting that the impact of the home visiting program was significantly larger in later grades.

The Connecticut State Department of Education (CSDE) and Governor Ned Lamont used $10.7 million in federal pandemic relief funds to launch the Learner Engagement and Attendance Program (LEAP) to address student absenteeism and disengagement from school. Through the program, home visitors connect directly with families and students to establish trusting relationships, help return them to a more regular form of school attendance, and assist with placement in summer, after school and learning programs.

Attendance Works was involved in designing the program model as well as developing and initially providing professional training to equip the LEAP home visitors to conduct the visits. Click here to read a press release and view a video highlighting the effectiveness of LEAP’s home visiting actions in reducing student absences. (Or click on the video below.)

LEAP provided funds to 15 districts, chosen because of high levels of chronic absenteeism. Each district paid school staff or community members to meet with students at home or in other locations, eventually reaching some 8,700 students attending schools statewide.

Attendance improvements in one district stand out: Hartford Public Schools saw a dramatic rise in attendance with an increase of nearly 30 percentage points in the 6 months following the home visits, according to the analysis.

Improvements overall occurred regardless of who was involved with the home visit. Nine months after the initial LEAP visit, attendance rates increased by between approximately 15 and 20 percentage points regardless of who conducted the visit, the analysis found.

Yet it did matter how the visit was conducted: LEAP visits that occurred at a student’s home or school had significantly larger impacts on attendance than visits that occurred via Zoom or phone.

In contrast, LEAP appears to have had no impact on attendance rates in a district that did not implement the LEAP program as designed. New Haven Public Schools canvassed neighborhoods that were identified as having high concentrations of chronically absent students, instead of doing one-on-one individual LEAP visits.

Home visits offer an opportunity for building trusting relationships, which may have waned during the pandemic. When done in the summer or fall, home visits can establish rapport early, before any problems arise. The connection created with a home visit can make it easier for educators and community partners to find out what motivates students to show up, identify barriers to getting to school regularly, and make the space needed for families and schools to collaborate on securing the resources to overcome these challenges.

“While overcoming the current challenges to regular attendance will take time, LEAP is an example of a program that can have an immediate impact on students, families and the school community. We know that students succeed when staff establish relationships of trust with families and work together as equal partners,” said Hedy Chang, executive director of Attendance Works.

Connecticut also used the federal Covid relief funds to develop the Center for Connecticut Education Research Collaboration (CCERC), a research partnership between the CSDE and institutions of higher education across the state. Researchers from Wesleyan University, Central Connecticut State University, University of Connecticut and the Capital Regional Educational Council carried out the LEAP analysis.

“These important evaluations and their results enable us to continue what’s working, refine what’s not as effective, and recommend targeted investments where necessary,” Education Commissioner Charlene Russell-Tucker said in a press release when the analysis was released.

Read the full report, An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Home Visits for Re-Engaging Students Who Were Chronically Absent in the Era of Covid-19 .

Find the report’s Executive Summary .

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