Teacher's Guide to Tackling Attendance Challenges

Students can succeed in school—but they must be in school to do so.

Addressing absenteeism is as important as addressing problematic behavior and academic difficulties in the classroom. To address the pervasive issue of chronic absenteeism—that is, missing 10 percent of school days for any reason—educators must begin to move away from a model of reliance on reactive and punitive approaches and toward one that is preventive and positive, and that uses proven principles of behavioral change.

Teacher’s Guide to Tackling Attendance Challenges, by nationally known educators Jessica Sprick and Tricia Berg, provides teachers with the information and resources they need to build a strong classroom-based initiative to improve the attendance of all students, creating a classroom culture of attendance with easy-to-implement strategies.

Sprick and Berg provide concrete and practical strategies for teachers to implement in their own classrooms to address chronic absence and improve the attendance of all students, including:

Jessica Sprick, MS, Special Education, is a consultant and presenter for Safe & Civil Schools and a writer for Ancora Publishing. Ms. Sprick has been a special education teacher for students with behavioral needs and dean of students at the middle school level. Her practical experience in schools drives her passion to help school and district staff develop and implement effective behavioral, academic, and attendance approaches. Ms. Sprick is the lead trainer for the Safe & Civil Schools model of absenteeism prevention and intervention, and she is a coauthor of the attendance resource School Leader's Guide to Tackling Attendance Challenges. Ms. Sprick is also a coauthor of Foundations: A Proactive and Positive Behavior Support System (3rd Edition), Functional Behavior Assessment of Bullying, and Bullying: Universal Procedures and Interventions.

Tricia Berg, PhD, is a national and international education consultant who has worked with schools, districts, and states to develop multi-tiered systems of support for students. She has provided professional development and coaching support to educational organizations in the areas of math, explicit instruction, positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS), inclusive strategies, data-driven decision making, and special education compliance. Prior to becoming an education consultant, she worked as a district-level PBIS coordinator, behavior specialist, special education teacher, general education teacher, and paraprofessional. Ms. Berg has worked on research projects in the areas of mathematics, implementation and sustainability of PBIS, and attendance interventions.