Imagine being seven years old arriving at school 30 minutes late and being sternly told, “You’re late,” while another adult admonishes, “You need to be on time!” Then your teacher repeats that. You are seven and have no control over when you arrive at school, but you are made to feel awful before your day begins.
You would probably rather stay home for the day.
Now imagine a different way. You arrive late and are greeted with, “We’re so glad you are here,” and,“You made it!” instead. The check-in process is quick, and the “late slip” is now a paper that says, “We’re glad you’re here,” with a happy face. When you arrive in class you are greeted warmly.
The new approach has been working at Heideman Elementary in Tustin USD, an alumni Cotsen school. Principal Deanna Parks shared: “It’s an attitude change. Everyone knows we welcome kids.” She added, “We understand that whether it’s occasional or habitual, they’ve probably already had a stressful morning and the last thing we want to do is add to their stress.”
The school has stepped up its family engagement efforts to connect with parents and caregivers. They hold group meetings with parents explaining the impact of attendance and connect families with wrap- around services that could help.
Recently, Heideman had the largest drop in the district in the chronic absentee rate at 12.5% (the next closest school had a 6% drop). The tardy rates are much better as well. We know that when students are greeted warmly, it makes their desire to make it to school, even if late, much stronger.
Deanna Parks recommends visiting the Attendance Works website attendanceworks.org for useful resources that support their efforts. Ms. Parks collaborated with Principal Amanda Heideman at Estock Elementary in Tustin, a Cotsen Alumni School in this work. For more information about Cotsen’s Family Engagement work, please contact Carlen Le-Hessinger at cle-hessinger@cotsen.org.
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