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Tool Kit: Strategies for Improving Attendance in Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten

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Tool Kit: Strategies for Improving Attendance in Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten

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Specific resources and handouts to support districts, schools, and early childhood providers in improving school attendance in pre-kindergarten and kindergarten.

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American Academy of Pediatrics: School Attendance

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American Academy of Pediatrics: School Attendance

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Attending school is a critical, defining part of childhood, and provides children opportunities for academic skill building, social and emotional development, nutritious meals, physical activity and physical education, health services and more. Research shows that healthy bodies and minds are the foundations of school attendance and success.

In school year 2021-22, more than 14 million children in the United States missed 10% or more of the days in the school year. This represented more than one in four school-age students in the US, a nearly doubling of pre-pandemic levels. Chronic school absenteeism, starting as early as preschool and kindergarten, puts students at risk for poor school performance and school dropout, which in turn, puts them at risk for unhealthy behaviors as well as poor long-term health outcomes. Students of color, those of lower socioeconomic status, and those with disabilities are far more likely to regularly miss school than their peers. Leaders in the field are increasingly referring to chronic absenteeism as a pediatric vital sign, noting its strong relationship to contributing health and social factors.

What is Chronic Absenteeism?

Chronic absenteeism broadly refers to missing too much school for any reason, including excused and unexcused absences as well as suspensions. Most researchers and a growing number of states have defined chronic absenteeism as missing 10% of the entire school year. This translates to, on average, 18 days missed per school year, or two missed days per month.

Why is it Important?

What happens when children don't attend school regularly? Chronic absenteeism can occur as early as preschool and kindergarten and has been shown to be related to future chronic absenteeism, grade retention and poor academic achievement.

Students with poor attendance score lower than their peers who attend school regularly on national skills assessments, regardless of race or ethnicity. Regular attendance can be a better predictor of school success and graduation rates than test scores.

How Can Pediatricians Make School Attendance a Priority?

Pediatricians can address school attendance in their office-based practices and communities and/or states or nationally as advocates. Some important office-based strategies include (complete list found in the AAP Policy Statement):

Routinely ask at preventive care visits and sick visits about the number of absences a student has experienced

Praise patients and caregivers when patients are attending school

Support parents in addressing barriers to attendance

Assist families in documenting and interpreting their children's medical needs or disability for an individualized education program or 504 plan

Encourage families to share their concerns about their children's health with their school nurse

Place a focus on prevention measures to stay healthy and in school, including good nutrition, adequate sleep and physical activity, proper hygiene, etc

Provide firm guidance on when a child should stay home sick and how to avoid absences from minor illness or anxiety

Develop relationships with school personnel, including school nurses and mental health clinicians, to foster care coordination and data-sharing opportunities

AAP Policy and Trainings

AAP NCE Plenary: Where re The Students? Assessing Barriers to School Attendance
Presented by, Dr Heidi Schumacher: Chronic absenteeism is an equity issue that is linked to educational achievement and subsequent health and economic outcomes for children. Learn how to assess school attendance patterns and help remove barriers to attendance.

The Link Between School Attendance and Good Health: This policy statement focuses on absenteeism related to students' physical and mental health, as well as the role pediatricians play in promoting school attendance.

AAP Learning Burst: Short, self-paced learning module regarding addressing chronic absenteeism in clinical practice, aligned to the AAP policy statement.

Resources for Families

Additional Resources for Schools and Healthcare Providers

AAP Voices is the official blog of the American Academy of Pediatrics, where AAP member pediatricians and others share their perspective on a wide variety of topics relating to children's health and wellness. The student attendance-related blog posts below are written by AAP's Council on School Health members:

AAP Voices: Every Day Counts: The Role of the Pediatric Provider in School Attendance
Heidi Schumacher, MD, FAAP & Danielle Dooley, MD, MPhil, FAAP - 01/29/2019

AAP Voices: How Pediatricians Can Help Families Navigate the Unusual School Year
Heidi Schumacher, MD, FAAP - 09/14/2020

AAP Voices: Let's Work With Schools to Help Address Absenteeism
Ryan Padrez, MD, FAAP, Danielle Dooley, MD, MPhil, FAAP & Heidi Schumacher, MD, FAAP - 11/7/2022

Playbook for School Attendance Data Sharing: Supported by the Bloomberg American Health Initiative, this playbook outlines how to plan and implement a school attendance data sharing initiative for cross-sector response.

National Academy of Medicine Vital Signs for Pediatric Health: Chronic Absenteeism: Seminal work from the National Academy of Medicine, defining chronic absenteeism as a pediatric vital sign given its close relationship to social and health factors.

America's Promise Alliance, Grad Nation Campaign
American's Promise Alliance launched the GradNation campaign in 2010, building on 105 dropout prevention summits we convened across the country to raise awareness and inspire action. GradNation is now a large and growing movement of dedicated individuals, organizations and communities working together to raise graduation rates and prepare all students for success.

Attendance Awareness Campaign
The Attendance Awareness Campaign is a nationwide recognition of the connection between school attendance and academic achievement. The goal is to mobilize schools and communities to promote the value of good attendance and to take concrete steps toward reducing chronic absence.

Attendance Works
Attendance Works' mission is to advance student success and help close equity gaps by reducing chronic absence. Attendance Works' resources for health care partners are accessible here.

Everyone Graduates Center
The Everyone Graduates Center works to develop and disseminate the know-how required to enable all students to graduate from high school prepared for college, career and civic life.

Healthy Schools Campaign
The Healthy Schools Campaign works to ensure that all children have access to healthy school environments where they can learn and thrive.

National Center for Education Statistics, Every School Day Counts (NCES)
The NCES is the primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education in the U.S. and other nations.

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The American Academy of Pediatrics offers valuable resources on the impact of absenteeism on children and how this puts them at risk for unhealthy behaviors and poor long-term health outcomes.

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NJ School Performance Report: Absenteeism

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NJ School Performance Report: Absenteeism

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"When we strengthen families, we ultimately strengthen the community. Our goal is that parents everywhere work with supportive providers, feel confident in their parenting role, and form strong, resilient attachments with their children. To help achieve this, providers must be responsive to parents, knowledgeable about child development, and eager to see every parent succeed." -T Berry Brazelton, MD

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ohs national center on parent family and community engagement

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The Brazelton Touchpoints Center is dedicated to strengthening the families of young children and the systems of care that surround them so that all children - regardless of their cultural, socioeconomic, physical, psychological, emotional health, or environmental challenges - will be successful early learners and have the opportunity to thrive.

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Childcare Resource and Referral Agencies

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Childcare Resource and Referral Agencies

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Center for the Study of Social Policy: Strengthening Families

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Center for the Study of Social Policy: Strengthening Families

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Strengthening Families

Strengthening Families is a research-informed approach to increase family strengths, enhance child development, and reduce the likelihood of child abuse and neglect. It is based on engaging families, programs, and communities in building five key Protective Factors.

Parental resilience

Social connections

Knowledge of parenting and child development

Concrete support in times of need

Social and emotional competence of children

Using the Strengthening Families framework, more than 30 states are shifting policy and practice to help programs working with children and families focus on protective factors.

Click on the topics below to find additional information, tools, and resources for understanding more about Strengthening Families and the Protective Factors Framework.

Strengthening Families Practice

At its heart, Strengthening Families is about changing how service providers interact with families to support them in building protective factors.

Strengthening Families is implemented through small but significant changes in daily practice, supported by shifts at the program level that allow workers to make those changes. A number of tools are available to support those shifts in practice. Click on the headings below to explore the resources and materials available to help you do this.

Strengthening Families Systems

Strengthening Families has had its greatest impact by not only changing practice in programs, but by changing the systems that help to govern how programs operate, are held accountable and are resourced.

Across the country the Strengthening Families framework is being used within the key systems that govern programs for children and families. This section of the website provides tools and information to support Strengthening Families work within four key implementation sectors-early care and education, child abuse and neglect prevention, home visiting, and child welfare.

Strengthening Families Collaboration

Strengthening Families is used as a common framework for aligning practice and approaches across the systems that touch the lives of young children and their families.

Strengthening Families implementation is most effective when it takes place through cross-systems collaboration. This section of the website provides tools to support cross-sector leadership teams leading the Strengthening Families work across the country.

Strengthening Families Training & Professional Development

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Strengthening Families - Center for the Study of Social Policy

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Strengthening Families is a research-informed approach to increase family strengths, enhance child development, and reduce the likelihood of child abuse and neglect. It is based on engaging families, programs, and communities in building five key protective factors.

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NJ Dept. of Children & Families: Strengthening Families

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NJ Dept. of Children & Families: Strengthening Families

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Partnering with the New Jersey Department of Human Services' (DHS) Division of Family Development (DFD), Strengthening Families (SF) works closely with Child Care Resource and Referral (CCR&R) Agencies to conduct trainings that build on the SF approach in child care centers and family child care providers throughout the State. SF is an evidence-based approach that helps reduce child abuse and neglect through training and guidance to child care and family child care providers.

The Protective Factors Framework
SF uses the Protective Factors Framework, which describes conditions or attributes of individuals, families, communities, or the larger society to reduce or eliminate risk. This Framework promotes healthy development and the well-being of children and families. Additionally, the Framework helps to ensure that children and youth function well at home, in school, at work, and in the community.

The Department of Children and Families (DCF) partnered with the Institute for Families (IFF) at Rutgers University School of Social Work to implement "Bringing the Protective Factors Framework to Life" - a two-day training that was developed by the National Alliance of Children's Trust and Prevention Funds. SF Trainers provide this two-day training to early care professionals throughout the state, encouraging them to integrate the Protective Factors Framework into their daily practice and interactions within all early childhood programs.

This approach can be implemented in any program that works with families.

Program Goals
Strengthening Families seeks to promote healthy development and the well-being of children and families who are enrolled in the child-care/family-child care setting through the Protective Factors Framework.

Program Services
What is included in the training?
The SF Approach encourages providers to interact with families to support them in building protective factors and protective capacities.

The 5 Protective Factors are:

1. Parental Resilience

2. Social Connections

3. Knowledge of Parenting and Child Development

4. Concrete Support in Times of Need

5. Social and Emotional Competence of Children

The protective capacities are the actions of parents/caregivers take to ensure that the child is safe and able to thrive.

These factors are tools that provide parents/caregivers with the supports they need to face the challenges they encounter in life and while raising a family.

Who provides the training?
The Child Care Resource Referral agencies (CCR&R) in each county are the trainers who work with the childcare and family-child care providers to incorporate the five Protective Factors and seven program strategies in the program's daily activities.

Who receives the training?
Child-care providers learn new approaches on how to partner with parents and families in protecting, educating, and caring for young children while promoting their social and emotional development.

What strategies implement the protective factors?
Through seven key strategies, providers can become well positioned to help families build the protective factors that have proven to be effective in preventing child abuse and neglect.

Specific strategies that build protective factors are:

1. Facilitate friendships and mutual support

2. Strengthen parenting

3. Respond to family crises

4. Link families to services and opportunities

5. Value and support parents

6. Facilitate the social and emotional development of children

7. Observe and respond to early warning signs of child abuse or neglect

Population Focus
Infants, young children, and their families.

Contact
Strengthening Families Project Manager
Office of Early Childhood Services
Department of Children and Families
Phone: 609-888-7400

Find more information about your local SF in our program directory, click HERE.

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nj strengthen families through early care and education

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nj strengthen families through early care and education

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Log in to your account and in the registry tab, select "Find Professional Development and Training Classes" and then under "Title/Course Name" search for Strengthening Families

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Things to Remember: Health & Safety Workshops

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Things to Remember: Health & Safety Workshops