Improving Attendance in Your School and Classroom: Getting Them There, Keeping Them There
About this ebook
Chronic absenteeism continues to affect schools across the world, yet traditional approaches—rewards, punishments, and attendance campaigns—rarely address the underlying reasons students miss school. Improving Attendance in Your School and Classroom offers educators, school leaders, counselors, and support staff a comprehensive, research-grounded framework for improving attendance through relationships, engagement, systems, and support. Rather than asking, "How do we make students come to school?" Dominique Smith, Douglas Fisher, and Nancy Frey challenge you to ask a better question: "How do we create a school students don′t want to miss?"
This practical, interactive resource provides:
- Strategies for building the conditions for attendance, including belonging, school climate, and strong adult–student relationships
- Approaches for designing engaging, meaningful instruction that gives students a reason to show up every day
- Tools for identifying and removing barriers to attendance, including practical access issues and trauma-sensitive classroom design
- Frameworks for leading schoolwide systems that sustain attendance improvement over time
When students feel known, safe, and connected to meaningful learning, attendance stops being a compliance issue and becomes the outcome of everything schools do well. This guide equips every educator to make that vision a reality—and ensures every student has a reason to return tomorrow.
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About the author
Dominique Smith is an award-winning educator, author, and school leader who has dedicated two decades to transforming schools into inclusive, safe, and empowering spaces for students and educators alike. He currently serves as principal at Health Sciences High and Middle College in San Diego, California. Smith earned his doctorate in educational leadership from San Diego State University and a master of social work from the University of Southern California.
Douglas Fisher is a professor and chair of educational leadership at San Diego State University and a teacher leader at Health Sciences High and Middle College. Previously, Fisher was an early intervention teacher and elementary school educator. In 2022, he was inducted into the Reading Hall of Fame by the Literacy Research Association. He has published numerous articles on reading and literacy, leadership, and curriculum design, as well as books such as Your Introduction to PLC+, Welcome to Teaching, How Feedback Works, Teaching Reading, and RIGOR Unveiled. Fisher loves being an educator and hopes to share that passion with others.
Nancy Frey is a professor of educational leadership at San Diego State University and a teacher leader at Health Sciences High and Middle College. Her published titles include The Courage to Learn, The Art and Science of Coaching, How Scaffolding Works, and The Illustrated Guide to Visible Learning. Frey is a credentialed special educator, reading specialist, and administrator in California and learns from teachers and students every day.
