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For students to be successful in school, they first have to be in school.

With that simple statement, Jessica Sprick and Randy Sprick launch a compelling case for prioritizing student attendance. This comprehensive guide provides school and district-level administrators and teams with the background information, strategies, and tools needed to implement a multitiered approach to improving attendance and preventing chronic absence. The authors use the results of their work in schools throughout the United States to dispel the myth that educators have little control over student attendance and provide success stories from elementary and secondary schools that have reversed longstanding patterns of absenteeism.

Citing extensive research, Sprick and Sprick share details about the shocking prevalence of chronic absence in U.S. schools and its effects on students, teachers, families, and the school community. They explain how to replace punitive approaches to absenteeism with effective methods that begin with universal supports and continue through Tier 2 and Tier 3 interventions for students with more persistent problems. Specifically, they explain how to

• Build an effective school team to address absenteeism .
• Create systems to collect accurate data and set priorities.
• Develop an attendance initiative that generates student enthusiasm as well as staff, parent, and community support.
• Design and implement strategies that are tailored to specific schoolwide concerns and demographics that reach all students.

Equipped with the information and tools presented in this book, educators can ensure wise use of staff and other resources--and create a culture of attendance that is the foundation of successful schools.

This book is a copublication of ASCD and Ancora Publishing.

Dr. Randy Sprick has worked as a paraprofessional, a teacher, and a teacher trainer at the elementary and secondary levels. Author of widely read books on behavior and classroom management, Sprick is director of Safe & Civil Schools, a consulting company that provides professional development throughout the United States for teachers, administrators, and other school personnel. He and colleagues at Safe & Civil Schools work with numerous school districts on longitudinal projects to improve student behavior and motivation. Sprick was the recipient of the 2007 Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) Wallin Lifetime Achievement Award. His publications include Leadership in Behavior Support, CHAMPS: A Proactive and Positive Approach to Classroom Management, Discipline in the Secondary Classroom, Foundations: A Proactive and Positive Behavior Support System, Teacher's Encyclopedia of Behavior Management, START on Time!, and Coaching Classroom Management.Sprick, Jessica: - Jessica Sprick has a master's degree in special education and is a consultant and presenter for Safe & Civil Schools and a writer for Ancora Publishing. She has been a special education teacher for students with behavioral needs and dean of students at the middle school level. Her practical experience in schools drives her passion to help school and district staff develop and implement effective behavioral, academic, and attendance approaches. She is the lead trainer for Safe & Civil Schools' model of absenteeism prevention and intervention, and is a coauthor of the following attendance resources: Functional Behavior Assessment of Absenteeism & Truancy, and Absenteeism & Truancy: Interventions and Universal Procedures. Ms. Sprick is also a coauthor of Foundations: A Proactive and Positive Behavior Support System (3rd Edition), Functional Behavior Assessment of Bullying, and Bullying: Universal Procedures and Interventions.