Back-to-School Attendance Checklist: How to Start the Year Strong

Overview:
As the school year kicks off, setting the right attendance foundation can make or break your district’s outcomes. From boosting ADA to preventing chronic absenteeism, this checklist outlines the key steps successful districts take in the first 30 days — whether you’re using a tool like Nudge or not.

📊 1. Review Last Year’s Attendance Data

Why it matters:
Patterns repeat. Students with poor attendance last year are at high risk of doing it again.

Checklist:

• Identify students who were chronically absent or truant last year
• Segment by grade level, school site, and demographic group
• Flag those students in your SIS or internal tracker
• Review which interventions (if any) they received and what worked

📬 2. Prepare Your Attendance Notifications

Why it matters:
Early outreach builds family awareness and trust — before compliance letters are triggered.

Checklist:

• Review and update truancy letter templates for accuracy and tone
• Translate letters into your top languages
• Set thresholds for when letters are triggered (e.g. 3 unexcused absences)
• Align with state timelines (e.g. SARB requirements in California)
• Make sure you can track what’s been sent, when, and to whom

🛠 3. Organize Your Intervention Strategy

Why it matters:
Interventions are more effective when they’re timely, documented, and assigned clearly.

Checklist:

• Define your Tier 1, 2, and 3 attendance interventions
• Create a weekly intervention review cadence (by site or team)
• Assign staff to monitor intervention follow-through
• Use a centralized method to track which students received what support

📅 4. Set Up a Weekly Attendance Rhythm

Why it matters:
Weekly routines help teams stay proactive instead of reactive.

Checklist:

• Designate a weekly attendance review day (e.g. every Tuesday morning)
• Review absentee trends by school and grade
• Flag new students trending toward chronic absenteeism
• Take immediate action before they hit thresholds

🤝 5. Communicate with Families Early and Often

Why it matters:
Families are partners in improving attendance — but only if they know what’s happening.

Checklist:

• Send a beginning-of-year message about your attendance policies
• Share how families can check their student’s attendance
• Make sure guardians know who to contact if issues arise
• Avoid punitive tone — frame outreach as support, not discipline

🚀 Bonus: Automate What You Can

Why it matters:
Manual systems don’t scale. The more you automate, the more time your team gets back.

Checklist:

• Explore tools that sync with your SIS to automate letters
• Set rules once — let the system handle sending
• Track which interventions improve attendance
• Focus staff time on the students who need it most

Want a Faster Way to Do All This?

Nudge helps districts automate attendance notifications, flag students at risk, and track interventions in one place — no spreadsheets required.

👉 Schedule a quick walkthrough to see how Nudge works today!