District Makes Strides In Its Attendance Efforts

The Lakewood City Schools is winding down its first year as a member of the Cleveland Browns "Stay in the Game Attendance Network" (SITG) and its second year of convening a District Level Attendance Team, as the District continues its shift from a reactive to proactive approach to student attendance.

The attendance teams met regularly (each building has a team) to dig into up-to-date data and develop strategies on how to address chronic absenteeism (absent 10% or more of school time) and support families facing attendance issues. Some successes from the District Level Attendance Team include more robust direct communication with families; identifying the foundations of what encourages attendance; and forming stronger partnerships with Lakewood Police, Lakewood Public Library, and other community resources in order to help us better support families.

That work set a great foundation for integrating the Stay in the Game network into the District’s attendance efforts at the beginning of this school year. Besides providing a “playbook” for the District to organize attendance data, SITG offered fun Browns swag as incentives for students in encouraging them to come to school every day. 

The District launched its SITG awareness campaign in the fall with attendance tracker magnets for every elementary student and encouraging all students, staff, and parents to sign the SITG Attendance Pledge. A fall highlight was the SITG booth at the first home football game that handed out Browns swag and offered attendants the chance to sign the pledge. We also gave away a team football autographed by David Njoku at the game. Throughout the year, principals recognized students’ attendance successes at Board of Education meetings and at in-school celebrations.

One special event that the District celebrated was Lakewood High science teacher Ann Pesta winning an all-expenses paid trip to the Super Bowl in New Orleans. Ann was selected from among Northeast Ohio SITG educators due to the many glowing submissions received praising her highly engaging teaching style that inspires students to come to class.

We appreciate the support from families and staff in our efforts to have all our students attend school regularly. We look forward to continuing this important work next school year!