This is part three of a series about school attendance.

Heartland Elementary School has reduced their rate of chronic absences by incentivizing attendance and rewarding students for coming to school.

“We teach the kids from K-6, ‘If we're not here, it means that we're really sick at home,’ and ‘The best place for you to be is at Heartland,’” Assistant Principal Kimberlee Hill said. “So we really push that.”

Corbin, a sixth grade student creates a poster about the importance of school attendance, to be hung in the front hall of Heartland Elementary. (Photo courtesy Kimberlee Hill)

Each class has set a goal to have a 90% average attendance rate for the year. Classes receive rewards for each day and each week they achieve 90% or higher attendance. They earn Fun Friday activities such as extra Specials (P.E., art or STEM classes) and free time in class to play games. Hill said all but a few classes usually achieve 90% average for the week.

There are always at least a few of the 21 classrooms in the school that have 100% of their students present on any given day.

“On our good days we get at least five to six, and then on our slower days, two to three,” Hill said.

Classes who have 100% attendance for the day get a treat-- a candy or fun eraser-- and are entered into a drawing for a class popcorn party.

Second grade teacher Alexandra Theuer said her class gets very excited when they have 100% attendance for the day. “We get a shout-out on the intercom for announcements and sometimes also they'll get a little treat with it, or something like that to help celebrate that the whole class was there,” she said.

Prizes for reaching daily and weekly attendance goals are earned as a class, not individually, and absences due to chronic illness, surgery or a family vacation aren’t factored into the daily percentage. Students know they can still qualify for a prize if a student or two is missing, and no one is ever blamed for not being there, Hill said.

“It's really fun to see when a kid is late or something and they walk into the classroom, everyone cheers for them, 'Yay, you're here!' and so it makes them excited to keep track of who's here,” Hill said. “So it just brings awareness that it's important to be at school.”

Riley, a second grade student, created an attendance poster which reads, "Attendance is important because teachers love you so much and you learn every day.” (Photo courtesy Kimberlee Hill)

The student-incentive strategy, which was introduced last year and expanded this year, has been measurably successful. Last year, 37% of students fit the definition of chronically absent, down from 42% during the 2022-23 school year. 

“Our goal this year is to be at 33%,” Hill said. “We had a 4% decrease last year, so we wanted another 4% decrease this year.”

Behind all the fun rewards and prizes is a targeted effort by staff members to support students who are struggling the most. Students with chronic absence patterns have an individualized plan and are each assigned a champion.

“[A champion] is just someone who has a good relationship with them at school that can cheer them on and make them feel even more welcome,” Hill said. “They just try to build that relationship with them even farther so they feel good when they're here, and that people in the building actually truly care about them being here.”

The staff members’ efforts are part of the school theme of ‘Belonging.’

Theuer said often students just need to be reminded why they want to come to school. At the end of each school day, she hypes-up the next day’s activities.

“I just get them excited and talk about ‘This is what we're going to do tomorrow,’ and ‘You did such a good job on this,’ ‘We’ll keep working on that,’” she said. “We also talk about which Specials we have, and what they're looking forward to for the next day, and then also just focus on what went well that day, so that they know they had a good day at school.”