Supporting Student Attendance Through Trauma-Informed Approaches

In April 2026, supporting student attendance was focus for school administrators who were in-serviced on trauma-informed approaches to addressing the root causes for higher absentee rates for individual students. Recognizing that attendance issues are often multi-faceted and complex, a supportive, early approach is often needed.

Administrators were shown how to run a chronic absenteeism report for their school and were given time to build on the knowledge gained from the previous session and review their own data, looking for anomalies, patterns and gaps. Administrators were encouraged to discuss best practices with other school leaders to determine a trauma-informed approach to addressing attendance needs in their schools.

A recent survey of School Social Workers/Attendance Counsellors has revealed that several administrators have amplified their positive attendance promotion strategies based on their school specific data reviews. Examples of strategies include:

• Enhanced data monitoring to ensure earlier intervention for students with emerging attendance concerns
• Providing talking points for educators to use when calling parents to guide attendance conversations about barriers to attendance from a supportive lens 
• Sharing resources and research from Attendance Works and Canadian School Attendance Partnership
• Setting attendance-related goals and communicating frequently with staff and parents on progress toward goals (i.e. reducing the number of late arrivals by 50%)
• Enhancing greetings at the entrance of the school
• Offering rewards and/or certificate to students who have shown significant improvements in attendance