This section explains shared accountability, offers inspiring shared accountability stories (bright spot) and offers selected resources to support your efforts.

What is Shared Accountability? Absenteeism is a cross-cutting issue and cannot be solved by any one person, department or agency. Create systems and cross-departmental and infrastructure support for attendance, and hold stakeholders — students, families, educators, agencies and community partners — responsible for helping to reduce chronic absence.

For the 2020-2021 school year, shared accountability should allow for the regular collection, monitoring and distribution of attendance metrics — even if formal accountability for chronic absence has been suspended. Schools will need to enhance their internal and external support systems to meet the academic, social-emotional and the physical and mental health needs of their staff, students and families.

In PreK-5 settings, key stakeholders should also review data documenting the conditions of preschool children and their families in order to identify gaps that need to be addressed.