Agenda Item
b. EveryDay Labs Attendance Intervention (Updated 10.10.2023)
Summary: Presented by: Kisha K. Towns, Ph.D., Chief of Wrap Around Services, Division of Equity and Student Empowerment
Contact: Kisha K. Towns, Ph.D., Chief of Wrap Around Services, Division of Equity and Student Empowerment
Case Study
Improving Attendance by Engaging
Families as Partners in Student Success
Fulton County Schools
May 2021
Fulton County Schools and EveryDay Labs B
“Leveraging [the program’s] technology
created channels for constant and productive
communication between families and schools.”
—Chelsea Montgomery, Executive Director of
Student Supports, Fulton County Schools
To learn more, visit:
everydaylabs.com
For more information about this brief, please contact info@everydaylabs.com.
© 2021 EveryDay Labs
Improving Attendance by Engaging Families as Partners in Student Success
Executive Summary
For two years, Fulton County Schools (FCS), the fourth-largest school system in Georgia, and
EveryDay Labs have partnered to support students and families in their Title I schools by providing
proactive outreach paired with inbound support designed to help them overcome barriers to
attendance. Led by Chelsea Montgomery, Executive Director of Student Supports, FCS has taken a
comprehensive approach to address absenteeism that leverages EveryDay Labs’ evidence-based
absence intervention as part of their Multi-Tier System of Supports (MTSS). As their partnership
with EveryDay Labs enters its third year, this case study provides insights on the implementation
and impact of their holistic approach to attendance on students, families, and educators across the
district.
2020–2021 Partnership at a Glance
Demographic Info:
43% Black/African 93,509
students
American
15% Hispanic/Latino
29% White Strong
Evidence
43% Under ESSA
free or reduced 12% Asian
price lunch
>1% Multi-Racial
>1% Native American Participating
Grades:
K–12
>1% Pacific Islander
Fulton County Schools and EveryDay Labs 1
Proactive Outreach
We monitor our partners’ attendance data, and when students in the district
miss more than 5% of days, we begin to send their families personalized
communication via text and mail—which we refer to as “nudges.”
School Year ‘20–21 Nudge Mailing Nudge Texts Total
Total nudges sent 18,600 204,732 223,332
Families Supported
Nudge Mailing Nudge Texts Total
by Home Language
Spanish 1,436 4,681 4,743
English 6,289 26,617 26,970
Engagement Outcomes
Between 8,373– 1,817 calls 18,129 responses
Families of 31,713
18,142 absences to the Family to the Family
unique students
prevented Support Team Support Bot from
supported and
8,859 families
engaged
Expanded practitioner capacity to focus on intensive intervention and teaching and learning
2 Improving Attendance by Engaging Families as Partners in Student Success
The Need to Focus on Attendance as
Part of a Student-Centered Approach
Prior to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and according to traditional compliance definitions
and in comparison to peer districts, Fulton County Schools (FCS), a large, diverse district in a
suburb of Atlanta, Georgia, seemed to be doing fine with student attendance. The Georgia
Department of Education defines chronic absenteeism as students missing 10% of the school year.
Using this definition, the State of Georgia data showed the district was doing acceptably, even well,
compared to other Georgia districts. The district had processes to call students who were absent
and expectations in place for schools to follow up with students who accumulated too many
unexcused absences.
FCS district administrators, however, made a commitment not to just be compliant with regulations,
but rather to ensure that their processes and protocols were supporting the full range of needs
of all of their students and families. And that starts with ensuring that all students are able to be
present, participate at school, and engage in their learning. As district personnel grappled with
broader questions about supporting students, they mined their data, listened to building-level
administrators, and reflected on their own policies and procedures. They realized that chronic
absenteeism, a measure of missed learning opportunities due to both excused and unexcused
absences, was a persistent issue and strongly correlated with student outcomes. As district
administrators unpacked the metrics, it was clear that a focus on improving attendance and
engagement was also a focus on district achievement goals and overall student well-being.
Replacing Reactive Compliance
with Proactive Support
Like most districts around the country, FCS had a reactive approach to attendance for even those
students who qualify as chronically absent. They provided limited communication alerting families
to a threshold count of unexcused absences being exceeded, which triggered the formal labeling
of the student as having problematic attendance. These notifications came after the fact and did
not provide support to help students and families overcome barriers to attendance. Further, using
the 10% threshold meant that many students who were still missing a substantial number of school
days did not get flagged for outreach right away. And for families with high rates of mobility, such
as those moving in and out of the district, their traditional approach for tracking student attendance
failed to identify students who needed greater support.
FCS district administrators came to recognize that they needed to address attendance in a more
proactive way and with a more nuanced understanding of which students and families require
support—including those whose students have primarily excused absences.
Fulton County Schools and EveryDay Labs 3
MTSS Framework to Support Attendance and Achievement
Chelsea Montgomery, FCS Executive Director of Student Supports, spearheaded this holistic,
comprehensive approach to supporting students. Prior to taking on this role, Montgomery worked
in several district departments including special education, teaching and learning, and student
services. With this diverse background, Montgomery understood deeply that attendance is a
prerequisite for positive student growth and development. And she knew that a Multi-Tiered
System of Supports (MTSS) framework was the most effective approach for districts to structure
their supports to ensure that all students get the resources and services they need to
be successful.
Montgomery explained that the use of the MTSS framework “forces one to consider attendance
much more broadly and analyze the connections between attendance and other district
departments and goals.” With this lens, it became apparent that many FCS students who were
not previously identified needed support, and that prior methods were ineffective in improving and
sustaining student attendance.
Bringing in a National Expert
Understanding the scope of the issue, but without sufficient district capacity to identify, plan, and
implement the necessary supports, FCS decided to look for a third-party partner to implement a
solution. With so many competing priorities for resources and attention, district personnel sought
a high-impact, light-lift approach with national expertise to maximize student engagement. In
creating the parameters for the Request for Proposal (RFP) to identify such a partner, Montgomery
prioritized an evidence-based, proven solution that would effectively support students without
adding additional burden to district or school staff. The RFP process determined that EveryDay
Labs would be the right partner for Fulton County Schools.
4 Improving Attendance by Engaging Families as Partners in Student Success
Implementation: Supporting Students
and Families from Communities
Experiencing Economic Marginalization
FCS made the determination to target the EveryDay Labs intervention to Title I schools. From that
point, EveryDay Labs went to work implementing their systematic, evidence-based absenteeism
intervention. EveryDay Labs intervention combines the science of communicating for action and
family supports to help students develop healthy attendance patterns. Research has shown
that mailed nudge letters received at home are much more effective at promoting long-term
behavioral changes than other forms of communication. In light of this impact, nudge letters are the
foundation of the EveryDay Labs implementation model.
As an initial step, EveryDay Labs helped clean the data from FCS’s student information system (SIS)
to ensure that families could be reached. In the first year, EveryDay Labs mailed 26,657 nudges
to 12,942 students. These nudge letters included personalized attendance data and information
about relevant supports in the family’s home language sent on a strategically timed, research-
proven cadence. Each of these letters included information about how to reach the EveryDay
Labs multilingual Family Support Team, who fielded calls and connected families to district and
community resources that helped overcome barriers to attendance. With EveryDay Labs providing
this support, FCS educators were able to focus their time and energy on the important work
of teaching.
In the second year of implementation, EveryDay Labs supplemented the nudge letters with
personalized, two-way text nudges that provide access to a Family Support Bot. In the second
year, EveryDay Labs mailed 18,600 nudges and sent 204,732 text nudges to the families of
31,713 students. This additional layer of support worked to address the more immediate needs
of students and families during the pandemic, including reminders for registration, start times,
information to guide transitions, and check-ins to ensure that students were able to engage
in learning. Montgomery pointed out that this “leveraging of technology created channels for
constant and productive communication between families and schools.”
Fulton County Schools and EveryDay Labs 5
Results: The Value and Impact
of the Partnership
Low-Burden, High-Impact, Actionable Insights
The partnership with EveryDay Labs allowed FCS to connect with hard-to-reach families and
provide relevant supports without any additional burden on district or school personnel. The
lift of this work from FCS was so light that school-based administrators hardly recognized the
intervention was in place until they reviewed their attendance data. In other words, they saw the
improvement without the hours of work usually necessary to make such a change. Montgomery
described this process as feeling like “magic” from the school perspective.
The Family Support Team and the Family Support Bot—both of which are fully staffed and
managed by EveryDay Labs—field questions and concerns from families as they work to overcome
issues that are preventing students from consistent attendance. Montgomery shared that these
resources provided an incredible support to families and alleviated a tremendous amount of burden
from district staff: “When families need support, they call the resource center.” Additionally, the
multilingual Family Support Team greatly increased FCS’s capacity to serve their Spanish-speaking
families with live, personalized one-on-one support.
In addition to the direct impact on student attendance, the feedback and metrics from the Family
Support Bot, the Family Support Team, and responses to mailed letters provided Fulton County
Schools with valuable data that informed its broader approach to student support services.
Specifically, the information gathered through these different channels provided the district with
valuable data insights regarding common and shifting barriers to school attendance, allowing the
district to take action to mitigate some of these issues.
Sustained Support and Engagement
Through this process, FCS families were connected with district resources to help their children
attend and engage with school. And they were provided with regular reminders about how to
maintain progress and improvement. In practice, this meant that not only did students with high
absence rates return to school, they continued to remain engaged because of the ongoing
reminders, communication, and support. This component of the EveryDay Labs partnership that
allowed FCS to recover enrollment and maintain attendance is fundamental to ongoing student
engagement and achievement.
6 Improving Attendance by Engaging Families as Partners in Student Success
Continuity through the Pandemic
Though no one could have anticipated a global pandemic and its associated challenges at the
start of this partnership, having the infrastructure and communication channels in place allowed
Fulton County Schools to avoid many of the increased attendance struggles that districts faced
nationwide. In particular, Montgomery shared, “When we pivoted to virtual learning in the spring of
2020 and, again, with various transitions during the 2020–21 school year, we were able to utilize the
text communications to reach families and support them in engaging with school.” Fulton County
found tremendous value in their ability to connect with families—especially their hardest to reach
families—as circumstances evolved during the pandemic.
Looking Forward
FCS’s experiences over the past two years have resulted in the district reaping the immense value
of this multifaceted approach to engaging families, communicating the importance of regular
attendance, and helping families overcome barriers. As a result, the school district has embedded
this focus on student time, attendance, and engagement into their core organizational structure
and approach.
FCS has dedicated itself to continuing and expanding this work moving forward. The Fulton County
Board of Education formalized a more nuanced definition and proactive approach to student
attendance by changing its district attendance policy. This new policy establishes that families
will be notified earlier and more frequently about absences and ensures that the district has
preventative and asset-based supports in place to keep students engaged in learning.
Seeing the successes from their initial implementation, FCS is expanding their partnership with
EveryDay Labs to include the entire district. In addition to the gains in learning time, the district
anticipates achievement gains and related improvements in behavioral, disciplinary,
and engagement measures.
Schools are complex cultures that are made up of the actual experiences of families with ever-
changing circumstances. Fulton County has provided an exemplar partnership-based approach
to ensuring that changes in circumstances do not result in insurmountable barriers to attendance.
Fulton County, in partnership with EveryDay Labs, has implemented a proactive intervention
that is keeping students engaged in learning. And being present is the first step to increasing
achievement and fostering healthy student development.
Fulton County Schools and EveryDay Labs 7
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A Improving Attendance by Engaging Families as Partners in Student Success