Cracking Chronic Absenteeism: A Practitioner's Playbook for School Support Teams
A step-by-step, tools-first course that equips school counselors, social workers, MTSS teams, and attendance coordinators with root-cause assessments, tiered interventions, family meeting scripts, and a progress-monitoring system to measurably reduce chronic absenteeism—starting Monday.
What you'll learn
What you'll be able to do
- Conduct a structured root-cause assessment interview to accurately identify the primary barrier driving each student's absences
- Differentiate between Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 attendance interventions and match each student to the right level of support
- Facilitate a productive, shame-free family meeting using a scripted agenda that moves caregivers from resistant to collaborative
- Build a legally sound, actionable Student Attendance Plan (SAP) with measurable goals, assigned responsibilities, and a review schedule
- Design and run a Tier 2 attendance group or check-in/check-out mentoring structure within your existing schedule
- Implement a weekly progress-monitoring tracker that flags at-risk students before they reach chronic absence thresholds
- Use attendance data to communicate impact to administrators, school boards, and multi-disciplinary teams
- Create a sustainable team workflow that prevents caseload overwhelm while covering all students on your watch list
How it works
A school that adapts to you
This isn't a set of static videos. Every lesson is generated live and tuned to where you actually are.
We learn your level
A quick placement check tailors your starting point so you're never bored or lost.
Lessons adapt as you go
Each lesson is written for your pace and your goal, adjusting as your skills grow.
Your AI coach keeps you moving
Checkpoints, feedback, and gentle nudges turn progress into a real result.
The curriculum
What's inside your school
6 modules · 18 lessons
Understanding Chronic Absenteeism — What the Data Is Really Telling You
Before intervening, you need to see the problem clearly. This module establishes a shared definition of chronic absenteeism, teaches you how to read your school's attendance data with precision, and introduces the MTSS tiered framework as the organizing structure for everything that follows.
- 1.1Chronic vs. Truant vs. Tardy: Getting the Definitions RightIncluded
- 1.2Reading Your Attendance Data Like a DiagnosticianIncluded
- 1.3Mapping Your School's Tier 1 Attendance FoundationIncluded
The Root-Cause Assessment — Finding the Real Barrier
The single most important skill in this course. This module teaches you a structured, student-centered diagnostic interview process that identifies the true driver of absenteeism—so every intervention you design hits the actual problem.
- 2.1The Five Root-Cause Categories (and Why They Demand Different Responses)Included
- 2.2Conducting the Root-Cause Assessment InterviewIncluded
- 2.3Turning Assessment Results into an Intervention MatchIncluded
Tier 2 Interventions — Scalable Support for At-Risk Students
Tier 2 is where you catch students before they fall into chronic absence and pull back those who've just crossed the threshold. This module covers the design and delivery of two high-impact Tier 2 structures: attendance check-in/check-out mentoring and small-group attendance support.
- 3.1Check-In/Check-Out (CICO) for Attendance: Building Your Mentor StructureIncluded
- 3.2Running an Attendance Support GroupIncluded
- 3.3Incentive Systems That Actually Work (and Ones That Backfire)Included
Tier 3 Interventions — The Student Attendance Plan
For your most chronically absent students, a generic intervention isn't enough. This module walks you through building, delivering, and monitoring an individualized Student Attendance Plan (SAP)—the cornerstone document for Tier 3 attendance support.
- 4.1Anatomy of an Effective Student Attendance PlanIncluded
- 4.2Coordinating Tier 3 Wraparound SupportsIncluded
- 4.3Re-Engagement Protocols for Long-Term AbsenteesIncluded
The Family Meeting — Scripts, Structure, and Trust-Building
Family meetings are the make-or-break moment in chronic absenteeism work. This module gives you a complete, scripted meeting structure that builds trust, clarifies shared responsibility, and ends with a concrete plan—not just a conversation.
- 5.1Setting the Stage: Pre-Meeting Preparation and OutreachIncluded
- 5.2The Family Meeting Script: From Opening to Action PlanIncluded
- 5.3Documentation, Follow-Up, and When to EscalateIncluded
Progress Monitoring and Team Sustainability
A great intervention means nothing if you can't tell whether it's working. This final module installs a simple, sustainable progress-monitoring system and shows your team how to use attendance data in ongoing team meetings—without adding hours to your week.
- 6.1Building Your Weekly Attendance Monitoring DashboardIncluded
- 6.2Presenting Attendance Data to Administrators and TeamsIncluded
- 6.3Sustaining the System Without Burning OutIncluded
Questions
Frequently asked
Your teacher
A note from your teacher
Patrice Banks
I've spent almost 16 years in school support roles—as a school counselor, then an MTSS coordinator, and eventually a district-level attendance specialist—watching brilliant, caring practitioners burn out trying to fix chronic absenteeism with the wrong tools. Robocalls, shame-based letters, and generic "attendance matters" campaigns don't move the needle. Root-cause thinking, tiered systems, and real family partnerships do.
I built this course because I wish someone had handed me this playbook on my first day. Every script, template, and framework here was stress-tested in real schools, with real students, including those facing housing instability, school phobia, chronic illness, and family crises. I've facilitated hundreds of family attendance meetings, built Tier 2 mentoring programs from scratch, and presented attendance data to skeptical school boards. I know what works, what wastes your time, and what actually gets kids back in seats.
My goal is simple: by the time you finish this course, you should feel less reactive and more in control—like you finally have a system, not just a to-do list. Let's get to work.
— Patrice Banks
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- 6 modules, 18 lessons
- AI-adaptive lessons tuned to your level
- Quizzes & checkpoints to lock in progress
- Your own AI learning coach
- Learn on any device, at your pace
- Full access for as long as you're subscribed