This is part of a series on school attendance.

Last month, the Utah State Board of Education launched the attendance initiative Every Day Counts to address chronic absenteeism rates, which rose from 12.5% to 23.8% in the past seven years. Their research shows chronic absenteeism (defined as 10% of school days missed or two absences per month) has academic, social and emotional impacts on students and results in lower grades, test scores, graduation rates and confidence.

“Each school day is an opportunity for students to learn, build relationships and grow in meaningful ways,” Utah State Superintendent Molly Hart said.

USBE provided an online toolkit and resources for families and educators to address factors which impact student attendance. They also enlisted the help of Attendance Ambassadors in every school district.

West Hills Middle School teacher Evan Feinberg jumped at the chance to be Jordan School District’s Attendance Ambassador. Feinberg is full of ideas to proactively improve attendance rates; he has implemented many already at West Hills Middle. Two years ago, he formed an attendance committee and got several staff members onboard to address and improve student attendance.

Feinberg collaborated with WHMS Clinical Support Specialist Andrew “Link” Simpson and Head School Counselor Brian Behrmann to hold weekly attendance groups targeting students with poor attendance, and last year, the number of chronically absent students decreased by 7%.

In the groups, students learn about their brain development and how to connect their actions to future consequences.

“We focus more on just life skills that will benefit them later on, to try to connect attendance to more success later on, with learning to show up on time and working with different personalities—those skills that you need for any job,” Behrmann said.

They also help students see the benefits of good attendance habits on their mental health.

“The more absences they have, the farther they get behind and then I think they just start to give up because they don't have a clue what's going on in class, and it's easier for them to not be in class than have the anxiety of being called on and not knowing the answer,” Simpson said.

Chronic absences affect students’ academic, social and mental growth. (Jet Burnham/City Journals)

The students track their academic progress in correlation to their attendance and when there is improvement, their progress is celebrated.

WHMS staff members take a positive and encouraging approach to attendance problems to prevent the problem from becoming worse.

“If the family doesn't have a connection to school, and its punitive talks back and forth between the school and the family, that decreases that home-school connection, and it continues to get worse and worse and so it’s pushed the families away from the school so the parents don't push their kids to attend as much as they normally would,” Simpson said.

West Jordan Middle School has also had immense success improving student attendance by building positive connections with students and families. Their 0.6% chronic absenteeism rate is the lowest in Jordan School District (district average is 23%) and one of the lowest in the state. Principal Raimee Jensen credits the low rate to the team effort by teachers, administrators, counselors, office staff and SROs to make connections with students and families.

Most JSD school policies stipulate a student’s parents are contacted by letter or email after a certain number of consecutive absences. When WJMS students don’t show up at school, school staff members don’t wait the prescribed number of days before they start calling, emailing and visiting the student’s home to work with the family to resolve the root causes.

“It’s really about creating a culture where students know that they matter and that their presence makes a difference,” Jensen said. “We’re intentional about fostering a sense of belonging, because we know students are more likely to show up when they feel seen, supported and valued.”

Rae Garrison (WJMS principal 2013-2023) said the school’s robust teacher-led after-school program, the biggest in the state, offers ‘every club you can think of.’ She said it gives students a reason to come to school and an opportunity to develop relationships with their teachers through shared interests.

“Students are able to connect with their teachers in a little different way,” Garrison said. “It could be playing Dungeons & Dragons or e-sports or volleyball—and that kind of connection really helps because it’s not about ‘Did you get your homework done?’ it’s more about ‘Hey, how’re you doing?’”

While WHMS and WJMS take a positive approach to attendance, many schools effectively discourage poor attendance with punitive policies. Most schools deny students with excessive school absences from participating in extracurricular activities, attending school dances and activities or obtaining a school parking pass. Granite School District goes so far as to fine truant students.

This year, Bingham High School announced a new policy in which 10% of a student's overall academic grade is correlated to their class attendance. At Herriman High School, students lose points with each unexcused absence or tardy, reflected in the participation portion of their grade, which can be 10-20% of the final grade. Both schools also incentivize students with free school merch and treats for good attendance each quarter.

Utah’s 45th district representative Tracy Miller, previous president of the Jordan School District Board of Education, said the removal of state truancy laws several years ago, coupled with the increased flexibility of virtual education options in recent years, have contributed to the current attendance problems.

“There’s just a different attitude about schools and about the importance of attendance in schools,” Miller said. “But any teacher will tell you it's really difficult to teach the student that doesn't show up.”

She said state legislators are discussing solutions for school attendance problems.

“We don’t want to really come down hard on kids, because a lot of them are dealing with a lot of issues,” Miller said. “We want to really help kids as best we can, so, there's got to be a balance between helping them and holding them accountable at the same time, and so figuring out that balance is the key.”