Parent Liaison Role
• The parent liaison works with families to communicate the importance of attendance and maintains a positive working relationship between the family and the school.
• The parent liaison can offer school staff a “full picture” of what is happening in a student’s life.
• The parent liaison can work with the attendance team to establish positive expectations for good attendance with students and their families
Examples of Attendance Initiatives
• 21 days, uniform free day
• Teachers who get attendance in accurately and consistently, Bennigan’s lunch or drawing for prize
• Weekly attendance incentives, linked to health (what’s in your smoothie)
• Door hanger if have purpose attendance, cupcakes if there all week
• Perfect attendance for individuals: local business gift (ice cream, chick fil a)
• Students who had chronic absences last year and have perfect attendance this year, parents were given a thank you letter and a gift certificate
• One school has weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly reward system and incentives
• Quarterly: lunch on stage (decorated)
• Yearly: day at the pool at Boys and Girls Club
• Lunch with liaison if they maintain, given certificate if maintained
• Businesses that have been helpful and offered prizes: Dodges, Chick Fil A, WalMart
What can you, as a parent liaison, do?
• Review absences daily and make a call home (document in FOCUS)
• You are an active member of the attendance team (if you don’t know who the lead is, find out)
• Determine and provide incentives for good attendance to students and their families (if Title I funds used, must support student academically and must not be a lot of money)
• Conduct home visits with your school social worker regarding attendance (not all schools have social workers, if you do not have one, email Kara Mulkusky (mulkukm@bay.k12.fl.us) and she will assign a social worker to your needs, they have one that covers the schools not covered)
• Assist with your school’s attendance bulletin board
• Always discuss the importance of attendance when meeting with parents
Frequent Questions/Concerns
How much time to I spend on attendance each day?
• The average school may spend 1-2 hours daily on attendance phone calls
• It does not have to be completed at a “certain” time of the day
What if I have other things to do than attendance?
• A great effort should be given to making the daily phone calls
• If you have too many things on your plate and cannot do the phone calls, contact Genia, and she will help prioritize your duties
What if I am secondary and have an attendance clerk?
• The decision of who needs to make the calls need to be discussed at your school, but daily calls need to be made
What about tardies?
• There have been changes in FOCUS regarding tardies and schools will need communicate with parents, administration, and other teachers to try to address these concerns. Further details will be available at a later date
If you do not have access to the attendance toolkit on the Google Drive, send an email to Crystal Boyette (boyetck@bay.k12.fl.us) to get permission. It has strategies, tools, and tips to help support your school’s attendance initiatives.
Final Thoughts
1. Maintain from calling home and initiatives from last year. You are part of the attendance team. If you don't know who is on your team, ask your school administrator.
2. Start talking with your teams about the barrier of teachers getting attendance in FOCUS in a timely manner.