Home Visits

Home Visits

What Are Home Visits?

Home visits are in-person outreach efforts where school staff or district representatives visit a student’s home to check in, build relationships, and address barriers that may be affecting attendance. These visits are usually non-punitive, supportive, and often used as part of Tier 2 or Tier 3 interventions under MTSS frameworks.

Home visits are most effective when they’re framed as a way to partner with families, not police them.

Why It Matters

Many students experiencing chronic absenteeism aren’t disengaged — they’re struggling with real challenges like unstable housing, trauma, or unmet health needs. A home visit:

• Builds trust and human connection
• Surfaces barriers not visible through school data
• Sends a strong message that the student matters
• Helps schools fulfill intervention obligations before legal escalation

When phone calls and emails go unanswered, home visits can re-open the lines of communication and offer support in a respectful, personal way.

How Schools Use This Term in Practice

Districts typically schedule home visits when:

• A student has multiple absences and isn’t responding to outreach
• A family can’t be reached via phone, text, or email
• A student is trending toward chronic absenteeism or truancy
• A team needs to deliver documents (e.g., truancy letters) in person
• A SARB referral is being prepared, and documentation of contact attempts is needed

Who conducts the visit can vary:

• Attendance clerks or site administrators
• Counselors, social workers, or family liaisons
• SARB officers or intervention specialists
• Community-based partner orgs

Many districts now use trained outreach staff with trauma-informed or bilingual skill sets to ensure visits are respectful and effective.

What’s the Difference Between a Home Visit and a Welfare Check?

A home visit is initiated by the school and focused on supporting the student.
A welfare check is typically requested through local law enforcement and used in situations involving safety concerns or emergency risk.

Home visits are relationship- and resource-based. They’re proactive tools for building connection and offering help — not enforcement.

Related Terms and Concepts

• Attendance Intervention – Home visits are often part of Tier 2 or Tier 3 interventions
• Chronic Absenteeism – Home visits help re-engage students before chronic patterns escalate
• MTSS – Many districts include home visits in Tier 3 playbooks
• SARB – Home visits are frequently used before or during SARB preparation
• Wraparound Services – Visits often lead to referrals for housing, food, or health supports

Example Scenario

A student in Fort Worth ISD has missed 15 days of school and hasn’t responded to calls, texts, or letters. The attendance team schedules a home visit. A counselor and district outreach worker visit the home and learn the family has recently moved and lost reliable transportation. The team connects the family to a local agency for bus passes and sets up a follow-up call. The student begins attending regularly again within two weeks.

How Home Visits Impact Districts

When used strategically and respectfully, home visits help districts:

• Prevent chronic absenteeism and truancy escalation
• Improve family engagement and trust
• Fulfill compliance steps for SARB or state reporting
• Connect families to community-based supports
• Reduce court referrals by offering documented early intervention

They also humanize attendance work, reminding staff and families alike that schools care about students as people — not just numbers.

How Are Schools Across the U.S. Using Home Visits?

Districts are using home visits more thoughtfully and strategically:

1. Non-Punitive Framing
Schools are training staff to approach visits as relationship-building, not enforcement.

2. Targeted Outreach Models
Districts are using attendance data to identify students who are unreachable by other means, then deploying home visits as a final early step.

3. Multilingual and Culturally Responsive Teams
To build trust, schools are staffing visits with people who reflect the community and speak the family's language.

4. Embedded in MTSS
Many districts now include home visits in Tier 2 or 3 attendance playbooks as a standard escalation path.

5. Partnerships with CBOs
Some schools partner with community-based organizations who conduct visits and connect families to wraparound services.

How Nudge Helps

Nudge helps districts coordinate and document home visits as part of a complete attendance support workflow.

With Nudge, districts can:

• Flag students for potential home visits based on data thresholds
• Assign visit responsibilities to specific staff
• Log outcomes and notes from each visit in a shared dashboard
• Track which visits led to intervention or re-engagement
• Ensure follow-through before SARB referrals

No more tracking visits in notebooks or spreadsheets — Nudge helps make home visits strategic, documented, and impactful.

Want to Coordinate and Track Home Visits More Effectively?

See how Nudge helps school teams plan, assign, and document home visits as part of a proactive attendance strategy.