The first Every Student, Every Day National Conference on chronic absenteeism will take place in Washington, D.C. this June. The two-day meeting is designed to support states, districts, schools, and communities in their work to develop effective chronic absenteeism policy and practice. The conference will also showcase a variety of approaches, with a particular focus on cross-sector efforts that address students and families’ education, health, housing, and justice-related needs.
The US Department of Education (ED) is hosting the conference in collaboration with the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, and Justice. ED is reaching out to educators, community members and others interested in joining the effort to reduce chronic absenteeism to submit a proposal for a 75-minute workshop presented during the conference. ED has just extended the deadline for workshop proposals to Monday, April 25, 2016.
The workshop proposals should address one or more of the federal chronic absenteeism guidance action steps listed on the proposal invitation. Click here to find out more about the proposal criteria and the application process.
Attendance Works is a partner in the development of the national conference, and sees it as an important opportunity to share information and guidance that can help inform effective chronic absenteeism policy and practice. These steps, based on multi-tiered, cross-sector early warning and response systems, will help to address the challenges of daily attendance so that all students are able to attend school every day possible.
The conference is open only to those serving on the state teams, but there are ways that you can become involved. The Healthy Schools Campaign has described a number of opportunities to get involved and ensure your state is participating in the conference. Below are a few of HSC’s suggestions on how to support the conference.
- Contact your state officials to determine if they plan to send a cross-sector state team to the conference to represent your state.
- Submit a proposal to present at a conference workshop.
- Create or join a state team.
You can read HSC’s full blog here.
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