Across the country, school leaders are grappling with chronic absenteeism, a challenge that threatens not only individual student success, but the stability of our school systems and local communities. Like many school systems nationwide, Ecorse Public Schools experienced a sharp surge in student absenteeism following the global pandemic. But as we pivoted to address this issue, we discovered that absenteeism is not a compliance issue. It is a human issue. Therefore, our district’s approach to chronic absenteeism prioritized relationships over stricter policies or punitive enforcement.
Understanding the Challenge
Ecorse Public Schools serves a close-knit community in the metro Detroit area. Every student in our district qualifies for free or reduced lunch, and nearly half of families in the surrounding community experience extreme poverty.
After the COVID-19 pandemic, chronic absenteeism surged, particularly at the high school level. Traditional interventions, such as automated calls, letters home, truancy referrals, were not reaching families, nor were they addressing the root causes of absence.
Analyzing the data and listening to families revealed that absences were often driven by a complex host of interconnected issues, including students working to support their families, caregiving responsibilities, mental and physical health needs, housing instability, transportation barriers, safety concerns, language access barriers, and the friction students faced when returning after suspensions.
Quickly, we saw that no tech-focused, automated messaging system alone could solve the challenges preventing our students from coming to school.
Shifting from Compliance to Connection
The team at Ecourse quickly recognized that improving attendance required rebuilding trust among disconnected students and understanding the challenges families were navigating. Instead of asking, “Why aren’t students coming to school?” we had to reorient our thinking and begin to ask, “What is preventing students from getting to school, and how can we help remove those barriers?”
This shift in mindset led us to adopt a student-centered, non-punitive approach to school attendance that is grounded in relationships and problem-solving. In addition to this shift in mindset, we also realized that we need additional capacity to meet our goals. So, we sought our external partners who were aligned with our thinking and our approach to bringing students back to school. Following an intensive search, we selected Concentric Educational Solutions to work alongside us on our outreach and community engagement efforts.
The core principles guiding our work were simple:
- Listen before acting.
- Treat families as partners, not defendants.
- Address root causes, not symptoms.
- Make returning to school clear, safe, and achievable.
Meeting Families Where They Are
One of the most transformative changes we made was moving beyond phone calls and letters to direct, human-centered outreach.
When trained staff and attendance advocates conducted home visits and community outreach, we learned much more than what any data system could tell us. Families shared concerns about safety in large public housing developments, confusion about re-entry procedures after illness or suspension, transportation barriers, and work schedules that conflicted with school start times.
“Front porch” conversations surfaced solvable barriers that had never appeared in student information system notes and equally important, families began to feel heard rather than judged.
As we continued our efforts, we found that when trust grows, open communication begins, and when open communication begins, solutions emerge.
Making Data Actionable, Not Abstract
Our focus on increasing meaningful human interactions did not mean that data was no longer important. Attendance data remains essential, but only when it leads to action. To make our data more actionable, we organized our attendance data into categories tied to concrete responses. Weekly audits and regular leadership reviews helped ensure we were not just tracking absences, but responding to them quickly and effectively.
We also discovered that clean data itself is an intervention. Verifying addresses, confirming preferred languages, and identifying the best contact times dramatically improved our ability to reach families.
Over time, we found that improving the accuracy of our communications data was the first step toward improving attendance.
Removing Barriers and Creating Pathways Back
A human-centered approach requires flexibility and responsiveness. Following our inperson outreach to absent students, our teams collaborated with families to create practical pathways back to school, including:
- Clear next steps for students returning after illness, surgery, or counseling
- Re-entry plans following suspensions to prevent repeat incidents
- Flexible solutions for students balancing work or caregiving responsibilities
- Bilingual, two-way communication to ensure families understood options
- Safe, scheduled meeting options when home access was a concern
Instead of expecting families to navigate complex systems alone, we walked alongside them.
Measurable Results and Meaningful Impact
Our approach produced measurable results. Prior to these efforts, Ecorse Community High School reported a chronic absence rate exceeding 70 percent, among the highest in Michigan. Within the first year of implementing a relationship-focused strategy, that rate dropped dramatically to 26 percent, an since 2022, absenteeism rates across the district have continued to decline.
Beyond the numbers, the impact has been felt in classrooms and homes. We’ve found that:
- Students are reconnecting with learning
- Families are re-engaging with schools
- Staff are spending more time supporting students instead of chasing paperwork
- Increased instructional time and stronger school climate
Reclaiming even a small number of students restores learning time and can offset funding losses tied to attendance. But the most important return is human. Students are returning to school, reengaging in learning, and reconnecting to future opportunities.
Lessons for District Leaders
For administrators facing similar challenges, our district’s experience offers several key lessons:
- Phone calls, texts, and emails are not enough. Direct, relationship-based outreach reveals barriers that messaging services alone cannot surface.
- A non-punitive approach accelerates re-engagement. Human centered outreach that seeks to build trust gets families talking and students back to school sooner.
- Clean data improves reach. Accurate contact information dramatically increases engagement success.
- Attendance improves when barriers are removed. Addressing root causes is more effective than enforcing consequences.
- Relationships are the intervention. When students feel known and families feel respected, attendance improves.
Moving Forward
Chronic absenteeism is often understood as a compliance problem. Our experience suggests it is better understood as a connection problem that requires empathy, persistence, and partnership.
When districts invest in relationships, they create conditions where students return to the classroom, reengage in learning, and reconnect to opportunity. If we want students in our classrooms, we must first show up for them in their communities.
As we say in Ecorse: Relationships first. Attendance follows.
About the Author
Dr. Josha Talison is the Superintendent of Ecorse Public Schools in Ecorse, Michigan.
