Lots going on across the district to improve attendance. The Gladstone community is all-in, including these Kindergartners who are pledging to be in school on time and every day. They, along with all the rest of the kids and their families are being offered a family/school contract promising that they (the students) will come to school every day and their parents will help their students get to school ready to learn every day.
     Elementary principals shared what they are doing in their schools to support the Attendance Counts! campaign. At one of our schools, Principal Katrina Pilay mentioned that her students at Barrows are competing to get to sit on the "rolly chair" for a week and to get Chester, the Chester Barrows mascot tin-man, stand sentry at their classroom door when their classrooms have perfect attendance. Prinicpal Charlotte Josephs at Woodridge Elementary is posting daily in the front foyer, for all students and families to see, a list of classrooms with perfect attendance.   

Cranston East High School principal, Sean Kelly reminds all students, including the class of 2017, that coming to school every day is their job.

We are in the news! Several articles in the Cranston Herald and the Providence Journal are helping us spread the word that Attendance Counts! Click on these links to read all about it!
Jeff Gale: Cranston schools battle chronic absenteeism Providence Journal
School district’s call to action puts focus on student attendance Jen Cowart Cranston Herald
‘Attendance Counts’ a team effort at Gladstone Elementary School Jen Cowart

SCHOOLS

Superintendent Lundsten: Has answered the call to action and has joined Superintendents across the country to lead the effort to improving attendance starting in the early grades through high school. Click here to learn more!

All 23 of our Cranston Public School Principals: Have Attendance Counts! on their Day 1 meeting agenda with all 1000 of our teachers!  That meeting will include discussions based on their school attendance data and end with the sharing of instructional tools for “teaching attendance” and sharing our city-wide expectations that Attendance Counts! 

All six CPS High Schools and Middle Level Schools: Are looking forward to empowering students to take a lead to improve attendance. They are all committed to get connected to the GetSchooled  on-line program where kids can earn merch, compete for national honors and find fun and support to get to school on time and every day.

All 17 of our Elementary Schools: will include attendance as an important indicator in their PBIS strategies; develop teams of Social Workers, School Psychologists, and School Nurses to focus on those students with specific issues; reach out to parents... and knock on some doors. 

Student Task Force members: will take the lead in activating their peers to get on board with the messages that getting to school on time and every day is just what we do. One way they will be engaging classmates is through the GetSchooled  on-line program - and, yes, it was the students who taught us about "merch".

School Committee Task Force member: Will write an op-ed for the Cranston Herald and Providence Journal - watch for it!!

Literacy/Title 1 Director: Task Force member is taking the lead on Kindergarten attendance. That work will begin on September 29 when she and one of our Kindergarten teachers attend a state meeting at Kids Counts to learn more about engaging the efforts of Kindergarten teachers for improving attendance

Our School Psychologist: And Task Force member will  support schools as they implement attendance in their PBIS process, and continue working with the District Data Coordinator crunching numbers to determine each school's attendance and chronic absence rates.

District Data Coordinator: Will be collecting and sharing information on activities and events at schools and in the community; will continue to distribute attendance data; will conduct a survey to learn directly from secondary students why they are absent, why they come to school and what would make coming to school better; continue to communicate Attendance Counts! activities and success across the city, state and nation


COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS

YMCA: Building an incentive for students with perfect and improved attendance, for example, Free Summer Membership for perfect attendance

CPS Family Center: Open House at 11 schools will include our Family Center leaders distributing 3000 bags of bag-to-school goodies and information about the importance of attendance. They will also be developing Attendance bulletin boards in schools; Supporting students to develop attendance goals; Working with principals to start school specific projects to raise awareness about getting to school on time and every day; They will be hanging Attendance Awareness posters in shop windows in the city, as well as talking to the shop owners to being aware of any students who may be in their stores when they should be in school.

Rhode Island Parents Information Network (RIPIN): Our RIPIN Task Force member has Attendance Counts! on her September monthly meeting for her team. During this meeting, they will learn about the importance of attendance and how they can support students and families.

Faith Based Organizations: A Task Force member will be meeting with her pastor to explore how her own church can connect the message for getting to school on time and every day with existing outreach efforts, as well as how the pastor might reach out to other faith leaders.

RI Mentoring Partnership: Will conduct Attendance Counts! workshops for all of their mentors, Mentor Program Coordinators, and participating school principals and school counselors in Cranston and across the state - RI Mentoring Partnership mentors spend, in many cases, years mentoring students- so this research-proven strategy will have effects far beyond September!

Cranston Public Libraries: Central Library will host Summer Reading Finales that attract many students and family members During these events, one of our school district administrators will engage the kids and families in preparing to get to school on time and every day. The libraries will also host GetSchooled   stations for participating students to engage with this interactive and, as noted by our amazing student Task Force member, "awesome" on-line program. The library is also coming up with incentives for students who are most active on the site.

RI Kids Count: Has invited our district Literacy Director and Task Force member and one of our kindergarten teachers, to a September 29th event hosted by Rhode Island Kids Count and Prov Plan that will include the presentation of a data story on kindergarten chronic absence and strategies for reducing chronic absence in the early elementary years. You can check out the stories yourself by clicking here.

Sodexo: Our CPS Food Services company will be posting on all of the school lunch menus: : Eat a good breakfast, a healthy lunch and come to school on time and every day!

PARENTS

Parent Task Force member: Will share key messages on reducing chronic absence on the soccer field and the ever popular BASICS page. She has shared what Cranston is doing with the national GetSchooled  organization so that they might include Cranston for some enhanced incentives. Also, she will be sharing information with child’s school PTA president in order to start a larger conversation among parents (busy mom!).

Parent Task Force member: Is on the Cranston Education Advisory Board (CAEB) and Special Education Advisory Committee (SEAC) (busy dad!) and has invited RI KidsCount, to provide facts about chronic absenteeism and tools for helping kids to get to school on time and every day.

COME BACK SOON! UPDATES ARE MADE OFTEN - 

Welcome to the Attendance Counts! blog. The purpose is to share news about how the Cranston Public Schools are WINNING to reduce chronic absences and improving attendance. 
This inaugural story comes from Cranston High School West. This year, it was their goal to reduce the number of tardies... 

Being late to school is being absent for a part of the day. Tardies add up quickly to a full day. Students that are late to school are starting the day off on the wrong foot. They are disruptive to the school and the students are losing important instructional time. 

At Cranston High School West, when the attendance policy changed and they were more diligent about following up with students and their families, the numbers began to change. The following is from their end-of-year report: