Tools and Resources

This page includes tools and resources both created by and leveraged by the SEAC. These tools for SEAs and LEAs to use and adapt in their student attendance and engagement efforts. Its briefs combine subject matter expertise and peer learning from SEAC events and summarize the latest thinking on topics important to SEAs and LEAs.

SEAC Briefs

These short briefs feature information on a particular topic or problem of practice and leverage promising practices and strategies. The briefs combine subject matter expertise and peer learning from SEAC events and summarize the latest thinking on topics important to SEAs and LEAs.

Needs Assessment (December 2020) SEAC conducted interviews, focus groups, and an online needs-sensing activity to inform its 2020-2021 technical assistance offerings at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The executive summary provides an overview of the needs assessment approach and findings. The addendum summarizes common challenges and strategies plus, it includes the complete dataset of responses from LEAs.

• Executive Summary
• District Needs-Sensing Addendum

Promising Practices Brief: Improving Student Engagement (July 2020) This brief elevated promising practices to improve student engagement and attendance during nationwide school closures at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. As schools reopened, these promising practices may be relevant to attendance in online or hybrid learning environments.

SEAC Tools

These interactive tools are designed to support further reflection on student attendance and engagement and facilitate additional actions.

SEA Attendance Reflection Tool: SEA staff may use this tool to review their attendance guidance and supports to identify opportunities to strengthen these supports for LEAs across instructional settings. The tool’s primary intended users are SEA staff who work closely with attendance data, attendance policies, or attendance-related supports.

LEA Attendance Reflection Tool: LEA staff may use this tool to review existing attendance plans and approaches and identify opportunities to strengthen those plans across instructional settings. The tool’s primary intended users are LEA staff who work closely with attendance data, attendance policies, or attendance-related supports.

SEAC Recordings

The SEAC opens webinar registration for participants from SEAs, LEAs, and related technical assistance centers for live webinars and provides access to the recordings post-event.

[Recording] Chronic Absenteeism: Troubling Trends and Promising Practices (January 10, 2023) The SEAC hosted a webinar on how SEAs and LEAs can address chronic absenteeism. Sustained high rates of chronic absenteeism continued to present challenges for states and school districts across the country. During this webinar, representatives from the Connecticut, Ohio, and Louisiana Departments of Education discussed current data trends in their states and provided examples of promising practices implemented to address the root causes of chronic absenteeism. Presenters shared how they used data and leveraged partnerships to help students and families overcome challenges exacerbated by the pandemic. Hedy Chang, the Executive Director of Attendance Works and a SEAC partner, moderated the discussion and offered additional perspectives from a national context.

[Recording] Community Discussion about Equity and Attendance (September 20, 2023) The SEAC and Intercultural Development Research Association Equity Assistance Center-South (IDRA EAC-South) hosted a Community Discussion about Equity and Attendance. During an interactive webinar, participants explored a question that many state and local education agencies (SEAs and LEAs) consider: How do your attendance policies, data systems, and practices improve equity for students of color, students with disabilities, or other student groups who have been historically marginalized? A panel of students, families, and LEA staff interacted with participants to discuss these questions and review the SEAC’s Discussion Guide: Equity as an Essential Component for Better Attendance.

The Cutting Edge of First Semester Attendance Data: How State and Local Education Agencies Can Respond webinar on March 10, 2022, highlighted the work of two states, Ohio and Connecticut.

• • [Recording 1] Attendance in Ohio: Supporting Districts in the 2021-22 School Year Presenters from the Ohio Department of Education discussed data trends from the 2021–2022 school year and programs and partnerships that support attendance recovery.
  • [Recording 2]  Cutting Edge of First Semester Attendance Data in Connecticut Presenters from the Connecticut State Department of Education shared first semester attendance data from the 2021–2022 school year and strategies for addressing absenteeism and increasing educational equity.