One Fredericksburg school has cut its attendance issues by nearly two thirds.
Its secret: automated notifications to parents.
Walker-Grant Middle School Principal Stephen Ventura says he’s seen a huge drop in recent weeks after the school began notifying parents via text whenever their child was late or absent from class. Ventura says a normal day would entail more than 250 student-related attendance issues per day, which can include multiple tardies or absences for one student in a single school day.
That number has dropped to under 90 in recent days.
Ventura says that a process that took hours (and occasionally days) to track and notify parents has been reduced to just minutes. The nearly-instant notifications have surprised some parents with how frequently their student is late or absent from class.
The progress in attendance was part of a presentation by Fredericksburg City Public Schools Instructional Data Coordinator Thomas Johnson to the School Board at last Monday’s meeting. Johnson “highlighted some wins” that FCPS has had over the past year in using the features of their ParentSquare app to better connect with parents.
“What I found is this allows parents to act with information sooner, and it allows them to reach out to the teacher as soon as possible to help support their child,” Johnson told the board.
Digital report cards, referrals and translation services for parents’ preferred language were other areas that Johnson and staff have worked on introducing to help students, parents and staff all get on the same page.
Johnson also did ride alongside on city school buses to begin analyzing how the FCPS bus app and what ways that can be improved.
“I believe that all of these tools are extremely valuable and successful for keeping our families engaged and connected.”
