Alexandria City Public Schools is using an app to notify parents in the Virginia school system when their students aren’t in class.
The app, called ParentSquare, sends families three notifications a day if their student is absent. Seventy percent of families have a registered ParentSquare account, school system spokeswoman Julia Burgos said in a statement, but all families get the notifications regardless of whether they use the app.
Use of the app is a part of the school district’s plan to combat a rise in chronic absenteeism — the number of students who miss 10% or more of required school days. In Alexandria, over 2,500 students (16%) were chronically absent last year, according to the latest state data.
“It makes communication very easy between the school staff and the family,” said Hope Murphy, Alexandria’s attendance and truancy outreach specialist. “When school staff send a text, it is received in the family’s language. And when they respond, they can respond in their language.”
In addition to helping address language barriers, the app provides early notification of an absence, which Murphy said is essential so that parents can take action before it’s too late. Before, when a student was absent, the county would send one notification via an automated call in the evening.
The app is linked to the student database system, which teachers use to take attendance, Murphy said.
“When students attend school regularly and on time, they build strong relationships with their peers and their teachers,” Murphy said. “They enjoy being a part of the school and the classroom community, and they receive daily instruction that can’t be made up afterward if they miss a day.”
As part of what Murphy described as an “all-hands-on-deck” approach to addressing absenteeism, the city has also convened an attendance task force, which meets routinely “to monitor our attendance data and to promote best practices for attendance in the schools.”
“School divisions across the country, since the pandemic, have seen rises in chronic absenteeism,” Murphy said. “So Alexandria is not alone.”
More information about the school system’s efforts is available online.
