Attendance numbers remain worrisome this year. Recent reports indicate that higher chronic absence is contributing to a drop in academic achievement.
Despite these challenges, we were impressed to see how the Attendance Awareness Campaign during September (or August) was celebrated by schools and communities across the country. They recorded podcast and awareness videos, hosted assemblies and contests, engaged local sports teams, issued proclamations and monitored absences, and made attendance a priority in back-to-school messaging to families.
We appreciate these efforts and more carried out by teachers, staff, education leaders and community partners who invested time and energy to ensure all students have access to opportunities to learn!
We were delighted that so many schools, districts and states celebrated the 13th annual Attendance Awareness Month with us this year. The campaign slogan, Here Today, Ready for Tomorrow! is a nod to the role that school plays in promoting student well-being and achievement. It also emphasizes the how the learning and development growth gained from participating in school provide foundational skills for students’ lives after school. These skills are also needed for a well-prepared, next-generation workforce.
Here are a few of the metrics we gathered from AAC 2025:
- 18,892 people registered for one of our Attendance Awareness Campaign webinars, vs. 10,429 in 2024.
- 44,199 people signed up for our newsletters.
- 10 attendance awareness updates were emailed (go here to see them all).
- 142 national and state-level partners disseminated information to their constituents.
- 8,898 news stories and blog posts featured student attendance issues or Attendance Awareness Month in July, August and September.
- 490,591 website page views occurred in July, August and September.
- 179 tweets featured the #HereTodayReadyforTomorrow hashtag in July, August and September, generating 229,627 potential posts reach.
The four Attendance Awareness Campaign webinars had record high registration numbers. View the recording, presentation slides, shared resources, and a discussion guide for each webinar on our website.
- Teams Make All the Difference for Supporting Attendance – April 2
- Health, Well-being and Safety are Essential to Showing Up – May 14
- Student Connectedness Fosters Attendance and Engagement – August 6
- Family Engagement Lays the Foundation for Attendance and Learning – September 24
Our Count Us In! toolkit on our Attendance Awareness microsite provides schools, districts and community partners with resources and tips to explain how being in school supports students’ social, emotional and physical well-being while offering opportunities to learn and achieve.
We extend a special thank you to this year’s Attendance Awareness Campaign corporate sponsors: Kaiser Permanente Thriving Schools, RaaWee K12, School Technology Associates, and TalkingPoints. Their support helps to make it possible for us to provide strategies and materials at no cost to hundreds of thousands of practitioners across the country.
Join the Campaign! Sign up for our newsletter to receive regular updates about the Attendance Awareness Campaign and news from Attendance Works.