Agenda Item
a. Renewal: Everyday Labs Attendance Intervention (Not to exceed $121,733)
Summary: Presented by: Kishia K. Towns, Ph.D., Chief of Wrap Around Services, Division of Wrap Around Services
Request: It is requested that the Board of Education approve the renewal of the EveryDay Labs Attendance Intervention platform for an additional year for an amount not to exceed $121,733.
Why: EveryDay Labs Intervention is proven to reduce absenteeism among students from communities experiencing marginalization. Research shows chronic absences disproportionately affect students due to systemic barriers. EveryDay Labs Intervention provides the families of these students with proactive support that helps them access learning opportunities. EveryDay Labs Intervention is a research-based and proven effective solution that promotes student achievement by reducing absences and increasing access to learning opportunities.
Details: EveryDay Labs was piloted in the DeKalb County School District (DCSD) during the second semester of the 2023-2024 school year. Upon completion of professional development for Horizon School staff members, the program was launched in March 2024. Everyday Labs monitors attendance and sends out text messages, which they refer to as nudges, to guardians when students are absent. Families have an opportunity to communicate with a bot that addresses the concern and provides resources as needed. Nudges are differentiated based on language, grade level, school, and level of absenteeism. At the conclusion of the school year, over 42K text nudges had been sent out and over 3000 families interacted with the chatbot or family support team to ask questions or address identified needs. Out of 7,127 students analyzed, 55% (or 3,954 students) showed improvement in attendance after receiving at least one text and at least one mail nudge from EveryDay Labs.
Schools also have access to the attendance dashboard via the Everyday Labs platform and can monitor parent contact and communication. The goal of the program is to reduce chronic absences, support families in developing strong attendance habits, and help families make the connection between attendance and academic success.
At its business meeting on Monday, October 16, 2023, the DeKalb Board of Education approved the purchase of EveryDay Labs for an amount not to exceed $121,733 for all Horizon Schools.
Financial impact: The estimated cost to renew the Attendance Intervention platform shall not exceed $121,733 and will be paid using Title IV Funds against charge code: 462.2100.530000.03221.7020.1779.8010.090.2024.
Contact: Kishia K. Towns, Ph.D., Chief of Wrap Around Services, Division of Wrap Around Services, 678-676-1918
Mrs. Denise Revels, Director of Wrap Around and Student Support, Division of Wrap Around Services, 678-676-2011
Ms. Shelly Bishop, Coordinator of Social Work Services, Division of Wrap Around Services, 678-676-2009
Status: Approved by General Counsel
Innovative Attendance Solutions to
Champion Student and School Success
A proposal for partnership with
DeKalb County School District
June 21, 2024
1
Executive Summary
The research is clear: when students are present they are more likely to be poised for success.
When they miss even one to two days per month they can become off track. The accumulation
of missed learning opportunities correlates to a trend of missed learning milestones that
ultimately lead to students being more likely to drop out altogether.
School leaders and educators are being called on to do more than ever before—responsible
not only for student learning, but overall well-being. Our partnership will provide a districtwide
support system that will engage families, provide more access to learning opportunities for the
students who will benefit most, and reduce the ask of school educators with the goal of setting
students and schools up for success.
Together we can:
● Prevent more than 5,000 absences
● Reduce chronic absenteeism among participating students by 11–15%
● Recover more than 1,800,000 minutes of learning time for students
2
Overview
Attendance is fundamental to student and school success, but absenteeism is more complex than ever.
With the significant disparities in educational opportunity exacerbated by the pandemic, it’s essential to
ensure students are in class to access learning opportunities and social supports. That’s why innovative
districts across the nation use attendance as a systemic lever to drive improvement across various metrics
associated with student success.
With an absenteeism crisis impacting districts nationwide, it is more critical than ever that districts
implement evidence-based interventions that are proven to positively impact student outcomes. Further,
districts need the ability to quickly leverage real-time attendance data to meaningfully use it as an early
warning indicator and act before students are off track. EveryDay Labs is ready to partner with the
DeKalb County School District to meet this imperative.
Our groundbreaking program, EveryDay Intervention, is the only PreK–12 attendance intervention to
receive the Strong Evidence rating from Evidence for ESSA out of Johns Hopkins University. The
program delivers a 11–15% reduction in chronic absence rates by proactively engaging families with
information and resources that help them overcome barriers to student attendance. The result: more
access to learning opportunities for the students who benefit most from being in class.
EveryDay Pro is our MTSS platform that provides weekly reporting on EveryDay Intervention at the
school and district level, along with real time analysis of attendance trends and patterns at the district,
school, and student level. With easy-to-understand data cuts and visualizations, this powerful tool allows
attendance and MTSS teams to identify, target, and coordinate interventions aligned to systemic and
individual attendance barriers. Paired with ongoing professional learning, practitioners will be able to use
real-time district data to further develop their teams and intervention strategies.
Our solutions are designed to help increase the efficacy of district and school attendance initiatives. At
the core of each is the understanding that more equitable access to information and resources fosters a
culture of success for students, families, and educators. Through our partnership, we can help the
DeKalb County School District maximize the power of attendance as a lever for student and school
success.
3
EveryDay Intervention
EveryDay Intervention is our evidence-based program that reduces chronic absence by 11–15%. Dr.
Todd Rogers, Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University and our co-founder and Chief Scientist,
developed the program and founded EveryDay Labs to implement it nationwide based on his seminal
research. It leverages nudges—a concept from the science of behavior change—to improve student
outcomes.
The program harnesses the power of absence data as an early warning indicator. When students in the
district are at-risk of becoming off track for success, missing 5% or more of days, their families
automatically begin to receive personalized, differentiated nudges via text and mail. The nudges help
prevent one-off absences that add up to missed learning milestones.
The nudges honor families’ agency over attendance by:
● Offering a problem-solving partnership that makes support more accessible
● Providing clear information about the number of and dates of absences
● Helping them make connections between attendance and their student’s success
● Developing strong attendance habits early to help prevent and reduce chronic absence
Here’s how the program works:
Step One:We develop a customized communication calendarthat maximizes impact based on your
district’s academic calendar.
Step Two:We receive daily attendance data by automatingor integrating with your Student Information
System and begin to monitor student attendance.
Step Three:We send familiespersonalized nudges bytext and mail, in their home language. Nudges
are differentiated based on a student’s grade level, school, and level of absenteeism. For help with
attendance barriers, families can access supports via our on-demand Family Support Bot or multilingual
Family Support Team. We also provide up to two check-in surveys to help get qualitative feedback from
families.
Step Four:We provide actionable reporting twice ayear to help districts understand the program’s
impact, including how many students improved their attendance and attendance tiers. EveryDay Pro
identifies trends, patterns, and barriers to attendance and provides weekly downloadable reports,
4
EveryDay Intervention Provides a Continuous Cycle of Access to Support
Families of at-risk students are automatically enrolled in
the program and will continue to receive proactive
support with the goal of moving their student into an
improved attendance tier.
Families will receive up to six nudges by mail per year at
times that are proven to be most impactful to attendance
improvement.
Families will receive text nudges twice per month with an
update on the number of days their student has missed
along with a friendly reminder they can simply text our
24/7 Support Bot for help. Additionally, families can
receive check in surveys up to two times per year. Support Bot and survey responses are reported back
to the district to help identify systemic barriers to attendance.
Families can call our Family Support Team, and will receive a call back by the next business day to
receive one on one support reaching the right resources in their home language.
Quick Link:EveryDay Intervention Demo
While the ultimate outcome of the program is proven attendance improvement,
at its heart it's about access—making information, resources, and learning
opportunities more accessible.
5
Implementation Timeline & Scope
Milestone Description
After signing a contract and Data Use Agreement (DUA), EveryDay Labs and your
Program Kickoff
district administrators and data team members attend a kickoff meeting.
Prior to the first nudges going out, EveryDay Labs will host training sessions with
School Leader Training school leaders to inform them about the program and share strategies for
communicating about it with families.
Your dedicated program manager delivers virtual professional learning sessions
EveryDay Learning
over the course of the school year. You’ll also get access to monthly webinars and a
Membership
full resource center of best practices & strategies.
The first mail nudges go out four to six weeks after the program kickoff meeting.
Intervention Begins
The first text nudges go out a few days prior to the first mailing.
Mail-based nudges will be sent to families every four to six weeks during
Continuous Intervention &
high-impact windows of the district’s academic calendar. Families will receive up to
Support
six in the school year. Text nudges will reach families every two weeks.
District leaders will be invited to attend a meeting twice a year to discuss the
Bi-Annual Impact Analysis
partnership and our attendance analysis & impact.
Your dedicated program manager will be by your side throughout the year. This
Ongoing Customer Support includes training, quarterly reports, and biweekly meetings to discuss program
implementation and attendance research & resources.
6
Truancy Support
A Positive, Proven, and Restorative Approach to Truancy for Your Entire District
Built on research conducted by EveryDay Labs’ cofounder Dr. Todd Rogers and Attendance Works’
Executive Director Hedy Chang. Leveraging behavioral science and proven family outreach principles,
we push clear, simple, and nonpunitive notifications to families of students who are truant. Our
technology removes the compliance burden, increasing school capacity to build relationships with
students and families.
Quick Link:Truancy Support Demo
How Our Multifaceted & Restorative Approach Works
● EveryDay Labs continuously monitors attendance data and identifies students eligible for a
Notice of Truancy, according to state requirements.
● Educators select or sign off on all identified students to receive Notices of Truancy.
● EveryDay Labs mails Notices of Truancy to families, removing the administrative burden from
busy educators so they can spend more time nurturing student & family relationships.
● Educators can view program reporting throughout the year to gain insights into school & district
level trends.
7
Truancy Support Configuration Options
District may select from the following truancy configuration options:
● Number of notices per student (up to 3)
● Minimum agefor notice eligibility (not grade)
● Maximum agefor notice eligibility (not grade)
● Qualifications for notices:
○ Number of full day absences to qualify for the notice
○ Number of period absences to qualify for the notice
● Time period over which absences should be totaled:
○ Select from: the start of the school year, from the last notice that was sent, or over a
certain number of calendar days
Please Note:
● If the District sets a number of period absences to qualify for a notice, and a student has period
absence data, then eligibility willdefault to usingperiod absences.
● The systemdoes not review both period and full dayabsences for each student, butselects one
based on the data and configurations available.
● Only one time period can be reviewed. I.e. We can identify students who’ve missed 3 absences
since the beginning of the school year.
● We cannot identify students who’ve missed 3 absences since the beginning of the school year
OR 2 consecutive absences in the last 30 days.
● It may take up to 11 days for approved notices to be sent to families.
8
EveryDay Pro
Reporting and MTSS Platform Included With EveryDay Intervention
Access real-time data analytics, reporting and intervention coordination tools to
proactively drive attendance improvement.
EveryDay Pro is our award-winning attendance analysis and intervention coordination platform. The
platform provides weekly reporting on EveryDay Intervention at the school and district level, along with
real-time attendance data in easy-to-understand views that help practitioners get ahead of trends and
patterns at the district, school, and student levels. EveryDay Pro gives practitioners an end-to-end tool
that can create and track intervention groups while making collaboration easy with visibility into
intervention progress, family outreach, and general notes.
While EveryDay Intervention is implemented across your district, teams can easily use real-time
attendance data as an early warning indicator and quickly intervene as well as track and target support
throughout the intervention process. The platform provides finger-tip access to the qualitative and
quantitative data attendance teams need to better allocate resources and easily identify barriers to
attendance to more effectively address the unique needs of students and families.
Quick Link:EveryDay Pro Demo
9
Dashboard Features
Download & view interactive weekly reports at the district & school level that
include:
● Reporting of text and mail nudges sent via EveryDay Intervention
● Incorrect family addresses
● District resources families have requested & engaged with
EveryDay Intervention
Reporting
● Attendance and chronic absence patterns and trends by day, month,
and year
● Insights by school, grade level, demographics, and attendance tier
School and District
Dashboards
● Student calendar including a breakdown of days absent and whether
they were excused or unexcused
● Ability to quickly create intervention groups based on attendance
tier, grade, and student demographic.
● Intervention tracking and next steps based on trends, patterns, and
root cause
● Space to collaborate on case management by tracking meetings and
notes
Student Dashboard &
Intervention Coordination ● Absence pattern identification (early absence, prior year absence,
specific days)
● Upward or downward student attendance trends
● Period level attendance metrics at the student & school level.
10
EveryDay Learning Membership
Membership Included With EveryDay Intervention
Data-driven professional learning that builds staff capacity to improve
attendance and engagement.
Throughout the year, your team will have access to a wide array of professional learning opportunities to
support your district’s goals for attendance, learning recovery, and family engagement. This includes:
● Guidance for maximizing EveryDay Pro and best practices for understanding attendance data
and leveraging evidence-based improvement strategies at each tier of the MTSS, delivered by
your dedicated Program Manager
● Access to monthly live professional learning webinars filled with timely and immediately
actionable attendance strategies
● Comprehensive library of resources for expert interventions, barrier assessments, and much
more.
11
Impact Summary
The proposed EveryDay Labs program is projected to have the following impact:
● Prevent more than 5,000 absences
● Reduce chronic absenteeism among participating students by 11–15%
● Recover more than 1,800,000 minutes of learning time for students
Quick Links
● 2 Minute Explainer Video
● 22-23 Nationwide Impact
● Research
12
Pricing
Description Price Quantity Subtotal
EveryDay Intervention*
Program Management & Design $10,000.00 1 $10,000.00
Licenses†
- Mail & Text Nudges
- Family Support Team
$7.50 15752 students $118,140.00
- Family Support Bot
- EveryDay Pro MTSS Platform (Data Analytics,
Reporting, & Onboarding Sessions)
EveryDay Learning
Annual Membership
- Includes professional learning sessions, $6,000.00 1 Gratis
monthly live webinars, resource library
Discounts
Enrollment Discount 5% 1 -$6,407.00
Annual Subtotal $128,140.00
Discount -$6,407.00
Annual Total** $121,733.00
*A minimum spend of $40,000 is required.
†Includes: unlimited text nudges; unlimited SupportBot requests; unlimited Family Support Team calls; up to six mail nudges a
year for up to 20% of program enrollment; mail and text nudges in English and Spanish.
**Price valid through: November 2, 2024
For more information, contact:
Dr. Nicole Bosworth
Senior Director of District Partnerships
nicole@everydaylabs.com
303-921-1475
13