No one likes a robocall, especially about their child. When informing families of student absences, many schools rely on generic messages with a lot of legalese. But there is growing evidence that a little bit of personalization can go a long way toward reducing absenteeism and building awareness of the importance of in-school instruction time.
In one recent personalized message intervention, eight rural districts in New York and Ohio reduced absenteeism by 2.4 percent over the course of the year by partnering with the National Center for Rural Education Research Networks to pilot a series of personalized emails, texts, calls, and letters. In another, Harvard’s Proving Ground Network worked with two districts on a personalized postcard project designed to address families’ misconceptions about the importance of attendance in the early grades (kindergarten through 2nd grade). The postcards displayed the student’s name, the number of days absent, and information about what lesson the student missed that day. Over the course of one school year, the postcards reduced absences by 7.9 percent, equal to gaining roughly 6,883 instructional days.
These low-cost strategies provide caregivers with timely information about their child’s absences and can be replicated by any district. Both networks provide free PDFs detailing the process for other schools to try.
