Headline Intelligence

North Carolina Sets a Goal — and Studies What Is Already Working

Approximately 24% of North Carolina students were chronically absent in 2024–25, down from the pandemic peak of 31% but still above pre-pandemic levels. The state has now launched AttendNC Counts, joining a national effort to cut chronic absenteeism in half by 2030.

But the number that caught our attention wasn’t 50%. It was 300. That’s the number of North Carolina “Bright Spot Schools” that researchers have identified as measurably reducing chronic absenteeism compared with similar schools. Rather than prescribing one statewide program, the state is examining what those schools are actually doing.

Why it matters: Setting a goal is easy. Understanding why improvement occurred is harder — and far more useful. If North Carolina studies these schools with methodological rigor, the findings could help move the attendance field beyond campaigns and promising practices toward evidence about what actually changes student attendance.

Research Watch

What Do the Bright Spots Have in Common?

Principals from seven northeastern North Carolina Bright Spot Schools described strategies that had surprisingly little to do with enforcement. Their common practices included relationship-building, direct student and family check-ins, scheduling flexibility, creative incentives, and understanding individual circumstances before assuming absence reflects indifference.

We have to create the environment for them where they want to come.

— Bright Spot School principal, North Carolina

Another described the school’s approach as “leading with love.”

The Attendance Science™ lens: None of these ideas is particularly new. What’s different is that a state has identified 300 places where improvement is measurable and is asking researchers to investigate why. That’s a shift worth watching. The question now becomes: can we identify which conditions are actually producing the change, for which students, and under what circumstances?

Policy Watch

California and Mississippi Walk Through Opposite Doors

Two states are providing a striking contrast in how systems conceptualize attendance problems.

California’s AB 461, the “More Help Not Less Act,” repealed a provision that could expose parents or guardians to misdemeanor charges, fines, and jail time related to a child’s chronic truancy. The stated intent: move toward support rather than punishment.

Mississippi, meanwhile, created dedicated state funding for attendance officers at a ratio of one officer per 4,000 students, while state leaders have publicly emphasized existing compulsory-attendance penalties and youth-court referral provisions.

Why it matters: Neither policy decision, by itself, tells us what will improve attendance. But each tells us something about what the system believes causes absence. And that matters, because how we define a problem determines the interventions we build to solve it.

Federal Watch

There was no significant new federal legislation or funding action on chronic absenteeism this week. That makes the state activity particularly important. California and Mississippi are both making substantial attendance-policy decisions using authority they already possess rather than waiting for new federal mandates or funding. For attendance leaders, this is a reminder that some of the most consequential policy developments may be happening in statehouses — not Washington.

Attendance + Technology

Two Districts. Two Opposite Bets on AI. One Shared Goal.

This may be the most interesting tension in this week’s brief.

New York City is restricting student-facing generative AI for approximately 600,000 younger students. City leaders explicitly framed the decision around protecting teachers, creativity, curiosity, and human connection.

Springfield, Massachusetts, is moving in the opposite direction. After a pilot at Central High School showed promising attendance results, Springfield signed a three-year agreement to expand AI-assisted personalized family outreach district-wide. Central’s overall attendance increased to roughly 93%. Chronic absence declined from 28% to 24.3%, while the percentage of students missing 20% or more of the year fell from 9.1% to 5.4%. Those are promising first-year results — but they represent one pilot school, not yet evidence of district-wide impact.

Here’s the fascinating part: both systems say they are protecting human connection. One is limiting technology to preserve it. The other is using technology to increase its reach. Attendance USA™ will be watching the outcomes — not just the announcements.

New Attendance Players

Home Visits Move Into the Attendance Conversation

Concentric Educational Solutions has expanded a home-visit-based attendance model across all 11 Linden Public Schools in New Jersey and renewed its work with Ecorse Public Schools in Michigan. The approach trains community-based teams to visit families, identify specific barriers, and translate what they learn into individualized intervention plans.

Reconnecting students to school is relationship work, not paperwork.

— Superintendent, Linden Public Schools

That’s another attendance strategy we’ll be watching for evidence of impact.

Where Attention Should Be Right Now

Four questions deserve attention as the school year gets underway:

1. Will North Carolina’s Bright Spot Schools be studied rigorously enough to determine what actually caused their improvement?
2. Will California’s repeal change everyday district attendance practices — or will old referral habits persist after the law changes?
3. Will Mississippi’s investment in attendance officers produce better attendance outcomes?
4. And perhaps the most intriguing: will New York City’s AI restriction or Springfield’s AI expansion ultimately produce stronger student and family connection?

The answers will tell us far more than the policy announcements themselves.

For School Districts & Organizations

North Carolina’s experience offers a useful challenge: before buying another attendance solution, study your own bright spots. Which schools, grade levels, student groups, classrooms, or teams are outperforming expectations? Then ask why.

Districts should also examine their technology through two lenses: does it replace meaningful human contact, or can it responsibly create more opportunities for meaningful contact? And as Attendance Awareness Month continues, examine whether your attendance strategy begins with a notice — or with a relationship.

For Parents & Families

September is Attendance Awareness Month, making this a good time to ask your child’s school a question that goes beyond attendance rules: “What are you doing to help students feel connected enough to want to be here?”

Families should also understand that attendance laws differ significantly by state. California has removed one criminal truancy provision, while other states continue to maintain penalties connected to unexcused absence. Know your state’s current rules, ask questions, and don’t rely solely on headlines or outdated information.

On Our Radar

Dr. Carolyn Gentle-Genitty’s Schools Spared, Children Punished: Outsourcing Education | How We Got to Attendance Science™ is now available in paperback alongside the Kindle edition.

And Attendance USA™ has completed its first Level 1 certification training, advancing another piece of the professional infrastructure being built around Attendance Science™. More information about upcoming professional learning opportunities will be coming from Attendance USA™.

From Attendance USA™

There is a word running quietly through nearly every story we’re following this week: belonging.

It appears in North Carolina schools that are improving attendance through relationships and flexibility. It appears in New York City’s argument for limiting AI. It appears in Springfield’s argument for using AI. It appears in home visits that begin by asking families what they need instead of assuming why students are absent. And even the opposing policy approaches in California and Mississippi force us to confront the same fundamental question: what do we believe makes people show up?

Attendance Science™ gives us a responsibility to do more than choose a side. We study the conditions. We examine the evidence. We measure the outcomes. And then we ask whether what we built actually made it more possible for students to show up. That’s Attendance Intelligence.