Statewide Well-Being Team News

Students with school avoidance want to be in school, but distress, anxiety or fear are keeping them from attending. For some students, behaviors may resemble crying in the school bathroom, frequent requests to see the school nurse or school counselor, or experiencing reluctance in getting ready for school. School avoidance can affect 5-28% of students.

*Source: School avoidance facts. School Avoidance Alliance. (2021, September 16).

Both students with disabilities and students without disabilities may experience anxiety which contributes to school avoidance issues. When a student with a disability struggles with school attendance, IEP teams can approach these situations by considering the root cause of the absences and ensuring they understand the student's and family's needs. This article from Attendance Works is a starting point for teams to begin considering these important factors.

Also consider reviewing discipline data to identify possible connections between absenteeism rates and out-of-school suspensions.

Collaborate with teachers and administrators:

(address school avoidance)

• Learn more about the signs of anxiety and how families can support their children.
• Using the Learn, Share, Inform strategy. Learn something about your student’s family, share the positives and inform families of ways to improve.
• Encourage students and families to use the Student Attendance Success Plan to monitor attendance, identify support systems and commit to actions to improve attendance.
• Getting the Most Out of Your Conferences - This step-by-step guide supports teachers to plan for successful spring conferences while addressing concerns about absenteeism with families

Student Success Planning - Templates to support educators and families to build a support plan to achieve attendance goals.

Use this printable document to outline strategies that help students reach their own individualized attendance goals.

• Learn more in this blog post from Attendance Works — "The Spring Attendance Slump."

• District Attendance Team Yearly Planning Calendar — Consider this calendar as you wrap up your year and begin to plan your attendance strategy this summer.
• School Attendance Team Yearly Planning Calendar Example — Consider this calendar as you wrap up your year and begin to plan your attendance strategy this summer.
• Blank School Planning Calendar — For each tier and time frame, fill in activities for your school or program. For each activity, you might specify who is responsible for leading and how to measure results of the activity.

As school teams continue to build and refine their intervention inventories, the "In" Data Matrix can be helpful to pinpoint what attendance data measures. Early Warning System indicators are used for entrance into Tier 2 and 3 interventions. Here are a few examples:

• Example for elementary classrooms.
• Example for secondary classrooms.
• Blank template.

*Source, Supplemental and Intensive Tiers Guide.

Iowa’s Area Education Agencies are committed to supporting schools in promoting healthy learning environments that address the social, emotional, behavioral, and mental health well-being of students. These resources were compiled by a statewide AEA team dedicated to supporting the well-being of students, families and districts. For more information about these resources or other AEA services, please contact your local Area Education Agency.