Attendance

Ohio is a compulsory attendance state with laws governing how districts should work with students and families to improve attendance. School attendance and engagement in learning are critical to success in school. Attendance and absentee prevention laws had a major overhaul a few years ago in the General Assembly and the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) continues to provide resources to school district leaders about how to comply with those laws and encourage attendance.

September is almost here! School buses are back on the road, lunch bags are back on the kitchen counter and educators are in that exciting back-to-school mood. As the new school year begins, it’s a good time for a reminder of upcoming school deadlines required by state law and resources available to districts.

September deadlines

September is Attendance Awareness Month, which is a nationwide recognition of the connection between regular school attendance and academic achievement. This month recognizes the importance of mobilizing schools, partners and communities to promote regular attendance by developing tiered strategies and personalized interventions to reduce chronic absence. 
 

In just a few weeks, schools across the state will open their doors and officially kick off the 2022-23 school year. As they prepare for the arrival of their students, we see a significant uptick in the calls we receive about Ohio’s attendance, tuition and custody laws.

Attendance Works and its national partners are launching the 10th annual Attendance Awareness Campaign webinar series for 2022. The free, four-part series will emphasize the power of using chronic absence data to recover from challenges heightened by the pandemic.

Students who are absent from school miss important learning opportunities that can be difficult, or impossible to make up. Engaging students is the key to getting them focused and ready to learn.

Attendance Works is offering a three-session virtual training for elementary and secondary school leaders and staff to provide proven, evidence-based tiered strategies to engage students and promote attendance using a team approach. The series cost is $300 per person. Group sessions will meet every two weeks on assigned dates.

Participants will learn:

September is Attendance Awareness Month. 

In January, the ESC of Lake Erie West (ESC), which was the sponsor of the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT), voted to suspend the operation of the community (charter) school. ECOT suspended operations and closed shortly afterward.

OSBA’s legal services division hosted its annual Attendance, Tuition and Custody Law Workshop today in Columbus.  This year, more than 170 school district EMIS professionals participated in an open and active discussion about a variety of topics. 

At the workshop, speakers shared information about resources that have been prepared by the Ohio Department of Education (ODE). For those of you who weren’t able to attend the workshop today, here are links to some of those resources.

HB 410