Chronic truancy is widely recognized as a significant problem with far-reaching individual and societal consequences. Poor school attendance is associated with a wide range of negative outcomes that continue well into adulthood, including not only school dropout and academic failure, but also delinquency, substance abuse, lower adult wages, and unemployment (Jimerson, Egeland, Sroufe & Carlson, 2000; U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2006). Even though many of these outcomes do not show up until adolescence, patterns of chronic absenteeism often begin long before, in elementary school.

There is growing evidence that students who ultimately drop out of school had a higher number of absences and disengagement from school as early as first grade (Alexander, Entwisle & Horsey, 1997).  Ongoing research by Principal Investigator Philip Cook, has demonstrated that chronic truancy in either second or third grade increased the likelihood of eventual dropout by 15 percentage points. However, despite these compelling findings, remarkably few programs have been designed to prevent truancy in the early grades.

During the 2010-2011 school year, the Truancy Prevention Project was designed and piloted in collaboration with elementary school teachers and administrators in North Carolina. Whereas most truancy programs rely heavily on social workers, truancy officers, or support staff in schools (e.g. attendance monitors), the Truancy Prevention Project is unique in that it engages teachers as the primary change agent without adding significantly to their workload. Teachers implement three intervention components to improve family engagement and student attendance:

1. universal teacher home visiting, ideally at the beginning of the school year as a way to establish a positive working relationship between family and school
2. classroom incentives for student attendance; and
3. targeted interventions for chronically absent students (called “target students”).

Teachers are also trained to utilize attendance data to identify target students, guide intervention efforts and track student progress over time. Teachers receive a stipend for their participation in the project and a small budget for expenses associated with classroom incentives. They also receive additional funds ($40) for each completed home visit.

Second and third grade teachers at E. K. Elementary participated in all components of the project throughout the school year. To further increase our understanding of the causes of truancy and how to effectively intervene, five second and third grade teachers at F.S. Elementary and three second grade teachers at G.L. Elementary joined the project in January. These teachers were trained to implement targeted interventions and conduct home visits for chronically absent students as needed, but classroom incentives were not used in these classrooms. School principals and NC Wise managers at all three schools were supportive of the project and met with Amy Schulting during the year to provide feedback. NC Wise managers also worked closely with researchers to provide anonymous attendance data and to enhance researchers’ understanding of the NC Wise system. Like teachers, NC Wise managers received a stipend for their participation in the project.

Attendance Data
Teachers enter attendance data into a standard electronic data base, called NC Wise, on a daily basis. However, teachers report significant difficulty accessing these data in a useful format. The attendance report teachers are trained to generate is currently quite limited, making it extremely time-consuming and labor-intensive for teachers to determine how many tardies or absences a particular student has accumulated during a specific time period. For example, NC Wise aggregates the number of absences during the academic year, yet teachers report the number of absences during each quarter on progress reports. Teachers report that calculating the number of absences during the final quarter for each of their students requires a full day.

Therefore, during this project, the research team sent attendance data back to teachers in a user-friendly format, highlighting the chronic truants. Teachers unanimously reported that this attendance data was critical to their ability to intervene effectively with students and to track their progress over time.

Teacher Home Visits
Through workshops and supervision by Amy Schulting, Ph.D., teachers were trained to conduct a 30-minute home visit for each of their students at the beginning of the school year. The structure of the home visit is flexible to allow for the diverse needs of each family. However, home visits share certain goals, namely: 1) develop a trusting and collaborative relationship with the child and family; 2) learn about the child and family by listening to the parent as the expert; 3) identify child and family strengths and resources to support student success; and 4) talk with parents about the importance of attendance, describe the classroom incentive and targeted intervention programs, and discuss any family- or child-level barriers to attendance. The home visit model was adapted from the Kindergarten Home Visit Project, a kindergarten transition intervention program designed and found to be effective through a randomized controlled trial with 44 teachers and 928 students in 19 Durham schools by co-investigators Drs. Schulting and Dodge (2010).

In addition to universal home visiting at the beginning of the school year, teachers were also encouraged to conduct home visits with target students throughout the year as needed. The goal of these visits were to: 1) meet with families to better understand the causes of student absences; and 2) collaborate with families in creating a plan to reduce chronic absenteeism.

During the fall, 80 of the 107 students in participating classrooms received a home visit from their teacher. During the spring, teachers at F.S. Elementary elected to conduct home visits for their target students. At F.S. Elementary, 100% of target students received a home visit from their teacher. Teachers reported improved relationships with students and parents, greater comfort communicating with parents, increased parental support of education, and improved attendance and fewer tardies as a result of home visiting (see survey results on p. 3).

Incentives for Attendance
Teachers offered varying incentives for students based on classroom-level attendance rates. Given the role of parents and the fact that young students cannot be wholly responsible for their school attendance, this program utilized a class-level reward program, rather than rewarding some students and penalizing others. Cumulative classroom points were tallied on a bulletin board so students could track their collective progress. Teachers also incorporated the points into daily math lessons. When the weekly target goal was reached, students earned a reward such as a pizza party, extra free time or a special prize.  Teachers and students brainstormed a list of incentives at the beginning of the school year so the incentives were as motivating as possible for each group of students.
Based on this pilot, the cost-effectiveness of classroom-level incentives seems to depend on the magnitude of an absenteeism problem across all students. For classrooms in which the problem is limited to a small number of chronically truant students, classroom-level incentives might not be worth the effort. In the pilot schools, the average absenteeism rate was 4-6% per day, a low rate that suggests that classroom-level incentives would not be cost-effective. For schools and classrooms in which absenteeism is a broad problem, it remains plausible that classroom-level incentives would be cost-effective.

Targeted Interventions for Chronically Absent Students
For chronically absent students, teachers initiated a cascade of increasingly intensive interventions to prevent the escalation of truancy. The precise order of these interventions was flexible so that teachers could respond to individual child and family needs. However, a general protocol was created with teachers to guide their efforts. In order to generate a systematic program that can be implemented across many schools, a balance must be achieved between a scripted protocol and flexibility.Teachers documented these interventions along with students’ and parents’ responses to the interventions. These data will allow the research team to refine the intervention protocol after identifying the most promising interventions.

Proposed Next Steps
We propose a continuation of the Truancy Prevention Project in North Carolina and an expansion of the project to schools in Minnesota. Based on teacher feedback, we have revised the targeted intervention protocol. The expanded and more specific protocol will be piloted in Year 2 in both North Carolina and Minnesota. We also propose a continued collaboration with NC Wise managers to streamline data access and use for teachers. We will also apply for funding to conduct a randomized controlled trial of the Truancy Prevention Project in both Minnesota and North Carolina during the 2012-2013 school year.

Teacher Survey Results
As described above, the primary goal of this study was to collaborate with teachers, principals and NC Wise managers to better understand the causes of truancy and to identify effective ways to intervene with chronically absent students. As this was a pilot study, there was no comparison group, thus rigorous outcome analyses were not possible. However, teachers provided feedback in meetings with Amy Schulting throughout the year, and through written surveys in the fall and spring. Teacher feedback was positive (see survey results below), reflecting the success of the project across a number of domains.

Fall Survey: Universal Home Visiting
This survey was completed by 6 of the 7 participating teachers at E. K. Elementary School

• 100% of teachers reported feeling more comfortable communicating with parents after the home visit
• 100% reported a positive impact of home visiting on teachers’ relationships with parents
• 100% reported a positive impact of home visiting on teachers’ relationships with students
• 100% of teachers felt the home visit was useful in learning about the child and family
• 100% of teachers reported increased parental support after the home visit
• 4 out of 6 teachers reported a positive impact of home visiting on student attendance and tardies
• 5 out of 6 teachers reported a positive impact of home visiting on parent involvement
• 100% found the visits to be enjoyable or very enjoyable

End-of-the-Year Survey
This survey was completed by 11 of the 15 participating teachers from all three schools.

• 7 out of 11 teachers reported the Truancy Project had a positive or very positive impact on student attendance.
• 8 out of 11 teachers reported the Truancy Project had a positive or very positive impact on student tardies.
• 8 out of 11 teachers reported that parents and students had a positive or very positive response to targeted interventions.
• 100% of teachers reported a positive impact of the Truancy Project on student achievement.
• 100% of teachers reported the Truancy Project had a positive impact on their relationships with students and parents.