Campaign for Grade-Level Reading: Attendance Resource Compass

In partnership with the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, United Way of Southwest Virginia is pleased to announce our support for Region VII’s school districts by offering resources to help implement and encourage each district’s schools attendance efforts.

First, the Attendance Resource Compass.

The Compass provides easy access to local, regional, and state information, data, messaging, and tools to support the accreditation chronic absence rating standards enforced by the Virginia Department of Education.

Second, the 2018-2019 SWVA Attendance Initiative Report.

Download Report

This region-specific resource is based on the work participating SWVA schools completed in the 2018-2019 school year. This resource includes a comprehensive report offering best practices, common barriers, and highlights, Chronic Absence data by school and district, and a Resource Guide, with samples of school messaging over the past year.

With the second release of national data on chronic absence from the Office for Civil Rights for the 2015-2016 school year, we now know that over 8 million students across the country are chronically absent. This puts an unacceptable number of tomorrow’s workforce off-track to read proficiently by third grade and for early school success overall.

Starting as early as preschool and kindergarten, chronic absence can leave third graders unable to read proficiently, sixth graders struggling with coursework and high school students off track for graduation. Chronic absence is especially problematic among students living in poverty who are most likely to have poor attendance over multiple years and least likely to have the resources to make up for the lost time in the classroom. In some communities, chronic absence affects more than one out of four children.

We hope these supports will be simple yet powerful ways to help our schools, parents, and students in Southwest Virginia navigate chronic absence prevention and intervention.

Questions?

Carolyn Koesters
Childhood Success Coordinator
Phone: 276-525-4114
Fax: 276-525-8484

Message Carolyn