Parents—a vital link between students and schools—are key to any efforts to address the chronic absenteeism plaguing many schools across the country.
But some educators report that parents’ attitudes toward good attendance have shifted, with many now seeing it as less important than they once did. While it’s critical to cultivate a school culture where students feel like they belong to keep them coming back, experts say it’s not enough. Schools must do more than engage students—they must engage parents as well.
How do educators and school administrators go about doing this? Three experts in student engagement and absenteeism shared their recommendations during a recent Education Week webinar on the topic.
Here is their advice:
Do not wait until a student is missing a lot of school to engage parents
Parents’ opportunities to get more involved in their children’s classrooms have declined over the years, but that trend is not due to a deliberate choice on the part of schools, said Hedy Chang, the founder and executive director of Attendance Works, a nonprofit that advocates for better school attendance policies and practices. Rather, Chang said, it is a consequence of security measures schools must take to protect students against safety and security risks.
For example, parents might drop their children off at school in a car line and never really interact with their child’s teacher or see what’s happening in the classroom. It’s hard to understand the value of something that you never get the opportunity to see in action, Chang said.
Showing parents what’s taking place in the classroom is especially important for parents and guardians of early elementary students who are building attendance habits.
“When families get what their kids are learning, then they see why their kids need to show up every single day,” Chang said. “We have to get much more creative about building relationships, using videos, using everything we can so that families understand this is what your kids are learning. Because if you ask a 5-year-old, ‘what did you do today?’ They probably will say ‘nothing.’”
It’s important not to wait until a student is missing a lot of school to engage their parents, Chang said. Engaging families and students to encourage good attendance is something that should be done with everyone from day one, she said.
Another strategy is using home visits to help families of chronically absent students get re-engaged in school, especially over the long summer break, Chang said. These visits should be used to check in and make sure families are aware of school resources still available to them over the break, answer any questions parents may have, and make sure parents and their children feel prepared for the new school year.
Do not rush to judge parents if their children are absent a lot
When a student isn’t showing up to school, educators and administrators shouldn’t rush to judge the parents, said Jeanie Stark, the student success coordinator for Manzano High School in Albuquerque, N.M. Instead of assuming a parent doesn’t care or is disengaged, ask parents how the school can help. Their answers may reveal challenges to the students’ attendance that the school was unaware of.
“We offer them resources,” Stark said. “It can be anything from rental assistance, to food assistance to, heck, ‘I need a doctor’s appointment.’ We have a student right now that we’re getting glasses [for].”
That helps bring parents into the fold, she said, because feeling welcomed and supported in school is just as important for parents as it is for students. Parents should also be involved alongside educators in creating attendance improvement plans for students, said Stark, which her school calls “student success plans.”
There’s no common template to address chronic absenteeism, Stark said. Oftentimes, the barriers to kids attending school are unique to the family or school community.
Communicate in the languages parents speak and use videos
In her district near Dallas, students speak more than 90 different languages at home, said Sharon Bradley, director of family and social services for the Plano Independent School District in Texas and a 2024 Education Week Leader To Learn From. Any effort to communicate with parents about improving students’ attendance will fall flat if they can’t read the communications.
Initial outreach to families should never be negative or punitive, she said. Establishing a positive rapport with parents makes it more likely that they will pick up the phone or be receptive to information or advice.
Schools should also not assume that language is the only barrier, Bradley said. She remembers realizing that many parents served by her district were just learning to read themselves in their native languages, rendering all the communications she was sending home to them pointless. So, Bradley has had to find creative ways to reach them.
One strategy she uses: printing QR codes on school newsletters and other communications that link to videos in multiple languages. That information emphasizes the importance of good attendance and strategies for how families can promote it. The videos have been popular, Bradley said.
“Several families said, ‘I work two jobs, but I can listen in my car,’” she said.
Bradley keeps her videos very short. “And we’ve noticed a huge difference in the level of collaboration from our families” since using the videos, she said.
