00:05:47 Cathy W,: Good morning! This is Cathy at Attendance Works. Well get started at the top of the hour. 00:06:19 Cathy W,: Here are the call in numbers just case they're needed: Dial by your location+1 669 900 9128 US (San Jose)+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)+1 646 558 8656 US (New York)+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)Meeting ID: 881 8645 5755Passcode: 697741Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kbdy1JRadk 00:11:07 Cecelia Leong: Good morning, everyone! 00:11:36 Carlos Mendoza: Good morning Cecelia 00:11:46 Cecelia Leong: HI Carlos! 00:12:08 Cecelia Leong: Is anyone else having flashbacks to Saturday morning cartoons? :) 00:12:12 Barbara Infanger: Good Morning 00:12:24 Cecelia Leong: Welcome Barbara! 00:12:26 DeKalb County Government: I totally am! Loved School House Rock! 00:12:37 DeKalb County Government: Good Morning Everyone! 00:13:07 Cecelia Leong: This song is making me type excitedly!!!! 00:13:15 RICARDO PADILLA: Buenos Dias Cecelia and Everyone!!! 00:13:27 Cecelia Leong: Hola Ricardo! 00:16:47 Angela Garrido: Good morning! 00:17:03 Cecelia Leong: Hi Angela 00:17:38 Angela Hartwell: Hello 00:17:58 Amy : good afternoon 00:21:25 Cecelia Leong: If it's possible, please change your name so we can call you by your preferred name rather than "iPad3" :) 00:23:57 Jenna DiMauro: Always keeping communication about attendance positive when talking with parents. 00:30:37 Amanda Mueller: Encourage teachers to reach out after 2-3 consecutive days absent to show concern for the student 00:30:51 Jennifer Wilson: Our Student Services Team has created a plan with specific strategies that involve all staff and occur consistently 00:31:06 Christine Maner: We invited a teacher liaison to be part of the Student Attendance and Review Team. 00:31:08 Stephanie Mack: I always share with the school staff and peers about what is provided in these attendance sessions 00:31:17 Jeff - DeKalb County Group: Continue to encourage and expect school districts to refer truants at 5 unexcused absences in the last 180 school days (5%). 00:31:21 Kristine: Working to get parents onboard. Working on better student incentives. 00:31:28 Kim Bohrer: making the phone calls, 00:31:32 jodi wardlow: We have started a district support team with guiding documents and communication plans to support schools with chronic absenteeism. Our school sites are where their is an area for growth. 00:31:35 Ed: Add attendance to our PLC meetings for tracking progress 00:31:36 Malaquias Baptista-Gomes: I am not in one school, but have many schools and encourage all of my schools around the whole school approach with attendance and making sure everyone knows they have a place in assisting with attendance. 00:31:40 Felix Rivera Jr: Coordinating with Administration 00:31:42 Jeff - DeKalb County Group: Parents, totally. They have to be on board for younger kid 00:32:02 Tynisa GIles: We are revising our tiered systems approach on a division level to address chronic absenteeism. 00:32:10 Marilyn: encourage school to have behavior and attendance be one team, with a teacher on the team 00:32:11 Stephanie Mack: Positive communication about how to improve attendance with all 00:32:13 andrea.nelson: We have a strong system in place for the Title 1 Schools in our district but need to implement in all schools across the district. 00:32:27 Amanda Klackner: Developed a flow chart for teachers and staff that indicated wehn teachers/staff should call, email, etc. and then move forward to the Student Support Teams. Attached it to a confidential building wide spreadsheet that all staff can access to see what steps have been taken and where we are at. 00:32:36 Christi Wuori: We have a process where teachers can log concerns with student attendance (virtual). We have a weekly review of those concerns, then we divide up the concerns between our team members to reach out to parents to ascertain obstacles. We follow-up regularly, and if it's not resolved with an initial outreach, then we enter them in MTSS. 00:32:52 MEGAN VICKERY: We are focusing on developing a plan to implement strong Tier I supports and be proactive with attendance. We have been too focused on students when things have gotten too out of hand. Our Attendance Team is looking at how we can divide the tasks in teams already in existence (PBIS, SRT/CORE, etc.) 00:33:26 Kim Bohrer: keeping reports up to date so they know where the students have improved or declines 00:34:24 Martina McCormick: Would anyone be willing to share reports or queries you are using in Aeries to disaggregate their data by demographic group? 00:34:29 Christine Maner: We don’t have attendance professional developments for teachers; we need to have at least one a year. 00:35:42 Jeff - DeKalb County Group: compassion 00:35:49 Rexanne Hill: There are circumstances that students cannot help. 00:35:54 Syndy Richey: grace 00:35:58 Amanda Mueller: curiosity and grace 00:36:08 Marilyn: training, switching a mind set from punishment vs understanding and support 00:36:10 Amanda Mueller: supportive language 00:36:10 Stephanie Mack: Know like a book, the school's overall attendance plan. 00:36:12 jodi wardlow: They need to know the policies in place around attendance, strategies to engage parents, support with challenges and barriers. 00:36:13 RICARDO PADILLA: Come from a place of trying to help and problem solving rather than punitive or accusing. 00:36:14 Jeff - DeKalb County Group: knowledge of family situation, established or building trust 00:36:15 Kim Bohrer: open mind 00:36:29 andrea.nelson: Positive conversations without focusing on punitive consequences 00:36:43 Jeff - DeKalb County Group: support for a better future 00:36:44 jodi wardlow: Willingness to be creative with solutions 00:36:45 Christi Wuori: paradigm shift from punishment and scolding to support 00:36:46 Kristine: Teachers need skills on how to get out of long tel. calls. 00:36:48 MEGAN VICKERY: They need to feel they have an impact on student attendance, open to having a positive conversation with a parent or more importantly one of concern 00:38:59 Cecelia Leong: Knowledge, mindset and skills -- sounds like you all know what's needed 00:44:05 jodi wardlow: No one is checking 00:44:06 Felix Rivera Jr: "I didnt know they had to be online the whole day" 00:44:10 Malaquias Baptista-Gomes: That students can make it up next year when school reopens. 00:44:14 RICARDO PADILLA: It's not real school. It doesn't count. 00:44:14 Amanda Mueller: In person is "real school" zoom is not 00:44:16 Allesha Beaulieu: Online school is pointless 00:44:17 Jenna DiMauro: it doesn't really count... 00:44:19 Josh Altmiller (he/him): If my child has On-Demand classes they don't have to do them 00:44:20 Kim Bohrer: just because I want on the zoom meet I am still doing work 00:44:23 Christi Wuori: Many families at the elementary level don't think the work/attendance is REQUIRED 00:44:25 Scott Mauroff: School want students to attend so they can get their money 00:44:26 Stephanie Mack: Parents don't understand what chronic absence full is 00:44:29 Tynisa GIles: They are not learning online. 00:44:30 Christine Maner: Kinder is not really important… 00:44:32 Aida Cueva: They aren’t learning anything 00:44:49 Barbara Infanger: What is the point? doesn't seem like she's learning anything anyway. 00:44:49 Stephanie Mack: They will pass children anyway 00:45:00 andrea.nelson: As long as we turn assignments in while remote learning, we do not have to attend class meets. 00:45:11 Christi Wuori: We have the option of F2F or online, but you can't switch back and forth. We have parents who just decide, "it's raining today, we'll log-on instead" 00:45:59 Cecelia Leong: I was just trying to note that some of the misconceptions are still the same as pre-covid: you only care about getting funding 00:49:57 Kim Bohrer: can you give an example of an open ended questions 00:56:35 Cathy W,: This is the Caring Conversations handout for breakout groups: https://www.attendanceworks.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Caring-Conversation-Worksheet-v3.pdf 01:15:24 jodi wardlow: Teachers!!! 01:15:26 Mary Rheddick-Pola: Yes, it would be great to have teachers use this tool to help frame their questions 01:15:38 Andre Stemm calderon: Role playing is really helpful in calibrating on the language we use with families, the tone we use in meetings and the messaging we are sending 01:15:43 Amanda Mueller: All team members, especially parents and students will feel validated and heard 01:15:43 Malaquias Baptista-Gomes: All school staff should know how to speak about attendance in a positive way. 01:15:49 Jenna DiMauro: Teachers who have students with chronic absenses 01:15:50 Jeff - DeKalb County Group: I think all parties would benefit from practicing this 01:15:51 Ed: All teachers and office staff 01:16:01 Marilyn: teachers, support team etc. 01:16:13 Amanda Klackner: Our teachers, paras and staff would all benefirt from using this framework when contacting families. We used a similar tool called Fostering Connections that worked great. 01:16:29 Barbara Infanger: Definitely would help teachers with making that first contact 01:16:45 jodi wardlow: Parents as well 01:16:55 Lisa Lyons: We had a great group. I don’t care for role playing either but we had a leader who “took the reigns” and I followed making it much more comfortable 01:17:03 Stephanie Mack: Everyone needs to be discussing a positive framework with attendance. 01:17:25 Jessica Flores: All staff! We should all get comfortable building relationships with families to make it easier to talk about attendance. Attendance meeting should not be the first meeting! 01:17:35 andrea.nelson: Everyone would benefit!! 01:17:59 Rosaura Cruz: I feel everyone can benefit from talking about attendance too 01:18:00 Mary Rheddick-Pola: Attendance is not only punitive but some parents don’t want to have strangers in their business 01:18:34 jodi wardlow: Curious about how tardiness plays a role here and if we will discuss. 01:19:07 Mary Rheddick-Pola: Ms. Aida, Mr. Richardson and Mr. Hanon nice meeting you from Boston 01:19:47 rhanson: Nice meeting you as well 01:19:49 Sue Fothergill: Hi Jodi, tardiness plays a role in a couple of ways, if a student regularly misses a certain part of the day, they are chronically absent from that learning and will experience learning loss, research shoes that frequent tardies are an early warning indicator of frequent absences, and if a student is frequently absent, taking a problem solving approach works too. Why are the tardies happening? What can we do to change the behavior and how can we support. 01:20:21 Malaquias Baptista-Gomes: Not showing or being supportive in tone and presentation. 01:20:26 Jenna DiMauro: When teachers get frustrated and talk with students and or parents in a more punitive way about absences. 01:20:28 jodi wardlow: @Sue THANK YOU!! 01:20:34 Stephanie Mack: Conversations in tone and manner 01:20:41 Jenna DiMauro: YES! 01:20:46 Ilbea Fedele: taking a threatening tone 01:20:50 Mary Rheddick-Pola: Being judgmental and aggy 01:20:50 Amanda Klackner: Families need to feel you are trying to help not trying to judge or be punitive. 01:20:52 Martina McCormick: Not following through with resources or having other staff members reach out uninformed breaks trust 01:20:52 Rosa Meza Villasenor: Time has to be calendared so it doesn't get lost in the day to day. 01:20:55 Stephanie Mack: If it starts off as a what you did wrong?? 01:20:57 jodi wardlow: No relationships built prior 01:20:58 Rosaura Cruz: Having a preconceived notion 01:21:05 Jeff - DeKalb County Group: misconceptions of the family situation, lack of exploring what the real issues are 01:21:10 Sue Fothergill: Telling people what the solution is instead of asking 01:21:20 Rosaura Cruz: Listening can help 01:21:23 Ilbea Fedele: making assumptions that a parent doesn’t wan the best for their child 01:21:32 Mary Rheddick-Pola: showing your priveledge and making a person feel less than 01:21:41 Scott Mauroff: not providing resources 01:21:59 Jeff - DeKalb County Group: understanding the impact that absences can have on the development of a child 01:22:16 Jeff - DeKalb County Group: Many parents don't seem to understand that fully 01:22:21 Mary Rheddick-Pola: Modeling how to fish and not enable and fish for them 01:22:22 Marilyn: time, frustration, helplessness, wanting someone else to fix it, fear of talking to parents 01:24:51 Jeff - DeKalb County Group: If someone is absent once every 10 days. After 10 years of school, they have missed a whole year of school. 01:31:04 amarquez-diaz: Food bank - Local churches 01:31:19 Rosaura Cruz: The families in transition program work with local community churches & food banks 01:31:23 jodi wardlow: KidsPack a non-profit supplies food packages to families 01:31:29 Amanda Mueller: Free school lunches and breakfasts offered to all students in the district (government funded) 01:31:30 spencemh: local food banks 01:31:32 Ilbea Fedele: we are linked to 2 food banks in the city. One is located in our district family center 01:31:36 Martina McCormick: county family support services, community resource centers, housing security non profits 01:31:42 Amy : We have a district food pantry as well as food pantries in schools. Churches are donating as well as other businesses. 01:31:43 Jeff - DeKalb County Group: All schools are delivering food or have food pickups, DeKalb County Community Gardens, Salvation Army, our office delivers food. 01:31:43 Angela Garrido: school pantries, church bood bank, school lunch deliverd home 01:31:45 Amanda Mueller: Delivering pantry items to quarantined families 01:31:46 Jenna DiMauro: local business and community members reaching out to see if anyone needs donations 01:31:50 Amanda Klackner: We have a district food distribution program where all kids 18 and under can receive free breakfast and lunch. We also deliver weekend food boxes to families on Fridays. 01:31:54 Stephanie Mack: Partners-MD Food Bank for grab and go, Weekend Back Packs, City Seeds - Meat and Vegetables boxes 01:31:55 spencemh: social services - food bank 01:31:55 Amy : meal pick up sites 01:31:57 Rosaura Cruz: Students also donate to the school pantry in the holidays 01:31:58 Jenna DiMauro: police officers and fire fighters 01:32:00 jodi wardlow: Drive through pickup for meals 01:32:01 Jessica Flores: We have partnered with our local Y to get food bags weekly. We deliver about 40 of the 100 bags we get. Families are able to pick up bags on Fridays at the school. 01:32:04 Malaquias Baptista-Gomes: Some schools give out gift cards to stop and Shop or other grocery stores. 01:32:16 spencemh: meal delivery and pick up through the school 01:32:21 Jenna DiMauro: meal drop off for families who don't have transportation 01:32:42 andrea.nelson: KidsPack, faith based supports, meal pick up sites from schools 01:32:50 Stephanie Mack: Fresh Fruits and Vegetables 01:32:56 Syndy Richey: we have a food bank at our high school that students an access 01:33:01 Amanda Klackner: Several local restaurants are providing sack lunches to kids 18 and under. They can stop by the restaurant and pick them up. 01:33:37 Mary Rheddick-Pola: Professional kitchen in Boston who provide foods to the food trucks provide culturally appropriate prepared meals for families every week during Black history month 01:36:16 Amanda Mueller: can you add that link to the chat? 01:37:09 Cathy W,: Strategies for Connecting with Students & Families: https://www.attendanceworks.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Strategies-for-Connecting-with-Students-and-Families-rev-8-27-20.pdf 01:37:14 jodi wardlow: One way to find out about contact information is to have teachers make a positive phone calls to not only check in but see if the info is correct. 01:38:12 Cecelia Leong: Absolutely, Jodi. And when they get the info, the key next step is get that info into the district system so the next person who needs to contact the family can do so. 01:42:07 Stephanie Mack: That's amazing!! 01:44:31 Cathy W,: Class evaluation survey: https://app.upmetrics.com/data_collector/ckf2oltbqlt8k0759tfdbfybj 01:44:31 Martina McCormick: What tools are available for measuring these outcomes? Did you all set up a dashboard or use specific attendance or intervention reports? 01:45:17 Cecelia Leong: Martina, if you can hang out a few minutes after, we can talk about tools 01:45:24 Amy : The link won't open for me. 01:45:47 Martina McCormick: will do 01:45:52 Amy : evaluation 01:45:55 Cathy W,: https://app.upmetrics.com/data_collector/ckf2oltbqlt8k0759tfdbfybj 01:46:16 Angela Hartwell: evaluation link wont open for me 01:46:32 jodi wardlow: Thank you ! This was time well spent! 01:46:40 Jenna DiMauro: Thank you! 01:46:50 Allesha Beaulieu: Thank you so much!