New Automated Early Warning System Identifies At-Risk Students Months Before They Become Chronically Absent

New features in SchoolStatus Attend platform flag risk within 60 days to help educators intervene earlier, automate print and digital interventions, and reach families across multiple channels, ensuring no student slips through the cracks

SACRAMENTO, Calif., Sept. 18, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- As districts across the country work to address stubbornly high levels of chronic absenteeism, SchoolStatus today announced the first early warning system that analyzes student attendance patterns in the first 60 days to identify students at risk of becoming chronically absent, making proactive outreach easy.

Unlike other solutions that stop at alerts, SchoolStatus Attend combines predictive insights with automated outreach, from digital campaigns to mailed letters, ensuring every family receives timely, accessible support. The SchoolStatus Attend solution was recently recognized by Tech & Learning's Awards of Excellence: Back to School 2025, which celebrate the most impressive products and solutions that support the work of teachers, students, and parents. SchoolStatus Attend saves staff time, ensures consistent follow-through, and provides months of lead time to help schools intervene before absence patterns become entrenched.

SchoolStatus, a leading provider of K-12 attendance management and family engagement solutions, designed these updates to its Attend product to give districts what they need most: earlier insights into warning signs such as truancy, automated and faster interventions, and multimodal family engagement, while reducing the burden on staff and adapting to budget constraints.

The updates come at a time when, nationally, 23.5% of students are chronically absent. Research shows that systematic approaches consistently reduce chronic absences, especially when schools can identify at-risk students quickly and maintain strong family engagement throughout their academic journeys.

"Our data shows that proactive, systematic intervention works, but timing is everything," said Dr. Kara Stern, SchoolStatus Director of Education. "This early-warning system will  help educators intervene early with at-risk students and communicate effectively with all families through accessible methods that are easily translated into their home languages."

How It Works

Early Warning System Predicts Chronic Absence Risk

SchoolStatus Attend's new Early Warning Insights feature analyzes student attendance patterns from the first 60 days of school to flag students who are likely to become chronically absent by year's end. The predictive alerts appear both in district dashboards for system-wide monitoring and in individual student views where staff can take immediate action.

"Predicting which students are heading toward chronic absenteeism within the first two months of the school year gives educators months to intervene before patterns become entrenched," Dr. Stern explained. "Instead of waiting until a student has already missed 18 days, schools can course correct when they've only missed a few."

District leaders can track intervention effectiveness across schools while individual staff members can see context-specific alerts that help them tailor family communication and support strategies based on individual student insights.

Building Positive School Climate Through Automated Engagement

For over two decades, SchoolStatus Attend has helped districts automate sending attendance letters, ensuring every student receives timely intervention. This year, districts will have a brand new way to engage families with digital attendance campaigns that are sent to families throughout the school year. This outreach enables schools to build on mailed interventions to further build a school climate where everyone understands and prioritizes the impact of daily attendance. The year-long campaigns celebrate student progress, encourages families to beat attendance averages, and recognize attendance improvements, creating a culture where attendance becomes part of school pride rather than just compliance.

Districts can choose from a variety of pre-built automated campaigns that align with their goals and are sent automatically based on Student Information System (SIS) data, so there is no additional work from staff. This approach ensures families receive timely, relevant communication that reinforces positive attendance habits at the perfect time

Breaking Down Language Barriers

Two-way translation capabilities remove language barriers that prevent effective family engagement. The system automatically translates messages into more than 130 languages, allowing families and educators to read and respond in their preferred language.

"Language should never be an obstacle to keeping kids in school," Dr. Stern said. "When families can communicate naturally about attendance challenges, schools can address the real issues."

Upcoming Release: Understanding Root Causes

Additional planned product enhancements align with the Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) model by helping schools provide targeted interventions or customized support plans based on why each student is missing school.

A new screen, coming soon, will allow staff to easily capture the reasons students miss class after family conversations, which then informs district-wide data about specific barriers to attendance. Whether it's transportation, health issues, or family circumstances, schools will be able to track patterns and address individual and community-wide challenges more effectively.

Supporting Systematic Success

The updates to SchoolStatus Attend directly support the systematic approaches that helped SchoolStatus partner districts achieve an average chronic absenteeism rate of 20.92% in the 2024-25 school year, well below the national average (23.5%). By making early identification easier and family engagement more accessible, the platform removes some of the most common barriers to student attendance.

"Schools know what works: early intervention, family engagement, and consistent follow-through," said Dr. Stern. "These product updates make it possible to do those things at scale without overwhelming staff or leaving families behind due to language barriers."

The new features are available immediately to SchoolStatus Attend users, along with training resources and implementation support. In addition, all K-12 educators can now access no-cost attendance planning tools, including the Mission: Attendance monthly resource series, at https://www.schoolstatus.com/mission-attendance.

About SchoolStatus 
SchoolStatus gives educators the clarity and tools they need to get students to class and keep them moving ahead. The robust portfolio of solutions improves attendance, increases family engagement, supports educator development, and enhances administrative efficiency for thousands of districts and over 22 million students across all 50 states. By combining student insight, better systems, and meaningful support, SchoolStatus helps teachers and staff focus on students—making it easier to see what matters, act with speed, and stay focused on students.

Media Contact
Annmarie Ely, Senior Strategist
0to5 for SchoolStatus
267.454.4686
schoolstatus@0to5.com

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SOURCE SchoolStatus