Mentors should have regular access to data on their student’s attendance to monitor if attendance is improving or not and help ensure that the student and family are aware of the situation. Ideally, mentors would be informed each day if a student was present or missed school. To help mentors notice and address trends, it’s helpful to see the mentee’s total days absent and present on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. For example, a student might typically miss school on a Friday or a Monday.

Districts will need to determine the best way to keep mentors abreast of their student’s data. Ideally, in districts with real-time data dashboards, mentors would have online access to their mentees specific data.

In addition, mentors should look for ways to engage students and possibly families in tracking their own progress. Mentors can create and post a weekly form or monthly calendar where your mentee can put a sticker on each day that he or she comes to school. Mentors can also set small goals with their mentees (e.g. last week you came to school three days, let’s see if this week you can do four).

Parents are motivated to respond when getting to class on time every day becomes important to the child. Children become invested in their attendance when they track it themselves daily and bring the scorecard home at the end of each week. Perfectly Punctual has developed scorecards to help with tracking weekly attendance. The Student Attendance Success Plan is designed to help parents track their children’s attendance and work with teachers to set appropriate goals.

Resources:

Perfectly Punctual Weekly Score Card

Student Attendance Success Plans (English, Spanish)

Use these calendar pages to track attendance and what’s happening in class (from Early and Often – Engaging Preschoolers section)