New instrument • Version 1.0 field testing
The Gentle-Genitty Family Stability Index™ (GG-FSI™) and Family Stability Reserve™
Measuring the home conditions that make showing up possible.
Before a child can show up for school, a family has to be able to show up for the day: food on the table, a safe place to sleep, a ride that arrives, a caregiver who is well, and people to call when plans fall apart. The Gentle-Genitty Family Stability Index™ (GG-FSI™) gives practitioners a structured, strengths-first conversation for seeing those conditions clearly. Its companion score, the Family Stability Reserve™ (FSR), asks a second question most screening tools skip: when something goes wrong, how much backup does this family have?
The GG-FSI™ was developed by Dr. Carolyn S. Gentle-Genitty, creator of the Perception of School Social Bonding (PSSB) instrument and pioneer of Attendance Science™. It extends her work from the school side of attendance to the home side. The PSSB asks whether a school gives a student a reason to attend. The GG-FSI™ asks whether a family’s daily conditions make attending possible.
Key facts
- Items36 scored items (30 across six stability domains, plus 6 Family Stability Reserve™ items)
- DomainsEconomic; Housing, Environment & Mobility; Health; Caregiving & Routine; Education & Developmental; Relational, Social & Community
- Response scale0 (Never / Not at all true) to 4 (Almost always / Completely true), anchored to the past 30 days. Every item is written as a strength, so a higher number always means steadier ground.
- ScoresFamily Stability Score (FSS) and Family Stability Reserve (FSR), each on a 0–100 scale
- SafetyA five-question Critical Safety Check, kept separate from the score and tied to required safety and reporting procedures
- AdministrationPractitioner-guided conversation with a caregiver or family member
- StatusVersion 1.0 research-development field instrument (October 2026); field testing under way
- DeveloperDr. Carolyn S. Gentle-Genitty
What it measures
1Economic Stability
Meeting basic expenses, predictable income, absorbing an unexpected cost, keeping work or school going, covering a child’s ordinary school needs.
2Housing, Environment & Mobility
A safe, dependable home, freedom from involuntary moves, space for sleep and study, reliable transportation, safe surroundings.
3Health Stability
Access to physical and behavioral health care, conditions managed well enough to keep routines, caregiver health, keeping up with treatment.
4Caregiving & Routine Stability
A dependable adult each day, predictable routines, reliable supervision, shared caregiving, reorganizing after surprises.
5Education & Developmental Stability
Consistent attendance, learning materials and support, schedules that fit together, access to school services, safe out-of-class activities.
6Relational, Social & Community Stability
A trusted adult for every child, safe family communication, people to call, protection from violence, connection to a supportive network.
The Family Stability Reserve™ Items FSR1–FSR6
Six “what if” items ask how well a household could absorb a sudden expense, a caregiver who becomes unavailable for several days, a failed ride, a change in housing, or a child’s new need, and how quickly routines recover after a major problem. The Index describes today’s conditions. The Reserve describes tomorrow’s shock absorber. It is a planning signal, separate from any clinical or financial solvency score.
Theoretical foundation
The GG-FSI™ draws on five bodies of theory and research. Hirschi’s (1969) social bond theory, which Dr. Gentle-Genitty applied to schools in her dissertation on chronic truancy (2009) and in the PSSB, here turns toward the home, where a child’s first bonds form. Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) ecological systems model shapes the six domains, from the household budget to the community network. General strain theory (Agnew, 1992) and the family stress model (Conger & Donnellan, 2007) explain how household pressures spill into routines and participation. Resilience research (Masten, 2014; Walsh, 2016) grounds the Family Stability Reserve™.
Five of the six domains align with the Healthy People 2030 social determinants of health (Economic Stability; Neighborhood and Built Environment; Health Care Access and Quality; Education Access and Quality; Social and Community Context). The GG-FSI™ adds a sixth, family-process domain, Caregiving & Routine Stability, which captures the daily routines through which the other conditions reach a child’s school day.
Why it matters
- National chronic absenteeism peaked near 28.5 percent in 2022 and stood near 23.5 percent in 2024, still well above the 2017 level of roughly 13 percent (Geduld, 2025, The 74).
- The American Academy of Pediatrics describes school attendance and child health as closely linked (Allison et al., 2019).
- Early childhood housing instability is associated with weaker school readiness (Ziol-Guest & McKenna, 2014).
- Regular family routines are associated with healthier child and family functioning (Fiese et al., 2002).
- In 2024, 63 percent of U.S. adults said they would cover a $400 emergency expense with cash or its equivalent, leaving more than a third without that cushion (Federal Reserve, 2025).
How scoring works
A trained practitioner reads each statement aloud, and the respondent chooses the answer that best fits the family’s experience over the past 30 days. Each domain’s raw score (0–20) converts to a 0–100 domain score. The Family Stability Score (FSS) is the average of the six domain scores.
| FSS band | Provisional interpretation |
|---|---|
| 85–100 | Stable — conditions generally support consistent functioning |
| 70–84 | Watch — emerging vulnerability; prevention may help |
| 50–69 | Strained — meaningful barriers in one or more areas |
| 30–49 | Unstable — significant disruption across important areas |
| 0–29 | Critical — coordinated assessment is warranted |
Bands are provisional and will be reviewed against field-test evidence.
Family Stability Reserve (FSR)
The six Reserve items total 0–24 and convert to 0–100. The FSR is a planning signal about capacity to absorb disruption, separate from any clinical or financial solvency score.
Cross-Domain Interaction
Practitioners count how many domains fall below 70 and record the connections the family itself names — housing and transportation, say, or health and caregiving — rather than assuming cause.
Critical Safety Check
Five yes/no questions screen for immediate danger, violence, loss of shelter, unsafe supervision, and acute health crises. They stay outside the score. Any “yes” triggers the practitioner’s required safety, reporting, or referral procedures.
Family Stability Action Map
The conversation closes with the family’s strongest protective factor, its most important concern, and its own picture of “more stable.”
Two sides of attendance
K-12 attendance teams can use the GG-FSI™ alongside attendance records and the PSSB to see both sides of a student’s attendance story: the school bond and the home conditions.
| GG-FSI™ Family Stability Score | Family Stability Reserve™ | PSSB | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Core question | Do daily home conditions make showing up possible? | If something goes wrong, can the family absorb it? | Does the school give the student a reason to attend? |
| Focus | Current conditions across six domains | Capacity to recover from disruption | Attachment, involvement, and belief in school |
| Respondent | Caregiver or family member, with a practitioner | Caregiver or family member, with a practitioner | Student self-report |
| Items and scale | 30 items, 0–4 | 6 items, 0–4 | 10 items, 5-point scale |
| Evidence status | Version 1.0, field testing | Version 1.0, field testing | Peer-reviewed validation, 3,507 students |
Development timeline
The Index carries a ten-year history, and it begins in Warren Township.
Where the reframe began
The roots of the Index trace to the Evaluation and Support Program (ESP) at MSD Warren Township Schools in Indiana, which James Taylor, Corinne Renguette, and Dr. Gentle-Genitty documented in “A Change in the Frame: From Absenteeism to Attendance” (Frontiers in Education, 2020). That article called for three shifts that still anchor the Index today.
From absence to presence. Use attendance data, rather than absenteeism data, for proactive student support, and pay attention to the contexts behind each missed day.
From exclusion to shared responsibility. ESP offered an alternative to expulsion and arrest. It placed responsibility for re-engaging youth on the school and community, starting with an evaluation and assessment alongside at least one parent, grounded in the CORE values of civility, order, respect, and excellence.
From the student to the family system. Educators were asked to look at context, such as whether all the siblings in one family miss the same days because living situations cause late drop-offs or missed buses. That question became the seed of the family stability construct.
The team also observed that for students facing trauma, school is often the most stable factor in their lives. The Index now measures the household conditions that make that stability possible.
Exploration of family stability as the condition beneath attendance begins with the launch of ESP at MSD Warren Township Schools in Indianapolis, Indiana.
As the 2017 Community Research Scholar of the IUPUI Chancellor Bantz Community Fellowship Program, Dr. Gentle-Genitty received $25,000 to document and formalize the ESP approach.
“A Change in the Frame: From Absenteeism to Attendance” appears in Frontiers in Education, presenting ESP as a promising intervention.
Pivot Attendance Solutions technical reports with James Taylor and Kristen Martin follow, including “Resolving Truancy through Community Collaboration.”
Through the Fourth International Self-Report Delinquency Study (ISRD4), the first community and school assessment in Warren Township was conducted with community partner Alliance for Life. The ISRD survey helped frame the domains the Index now measures.
This international work grounded the analysis of family-instability evidence from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY). Family stability became the organizing construct for the launch of Attendance USA and the U.S. Attendance Manifesto, which names five domains: Safe, Housed, Nourished, Connected, and Supported.
At the Attendance USA Research to Practice Summit at LSU, Dr. Gentle-Genitty presented the Family Stability Bullseye, with family stability at the center and the school bond (PSSB), community supports, and policy systems in the surrounding rings.
The GG-FSI™ and its theoretical grounding were officially released, and the Family Stability construct was shared first with community partners through the Warren No Wrong Door Housing Initiative and the Moorhead Community Resource Center.
Under the leadership of James Taylor, IU School of Social Work interns at the Moorhead Community Resource Center, alongside Rijenna Murray, helped prepare and field test the instrument.
The six-domain Community Practitioner Field Instrument, with the companion Family Stability Reserve™, is now in field testing. During the Hunt Institute’s October webinar, Attendance USA announced its availability and invited national partners to join the field test. A manuscript positioning the Index as the baseline measure for Attendance Science is in preparation.
Expert content review and family cognitive interviews; pilot administration to examine reliability and the six-domain structure; validity testing against attendance records and PSSB scores; fairness testing across language and community groups; peer-reviewed publication. The GG-FSI™ follows the same evidence-building path as the PSSB, which moved from a 2008 doctoral item pool to a peer-reviewed validation study with 3,507 students.
With gratitude
This work grew from partnership. Attendance USA is deeply grateful to Director James Taylor, Superintendent Dr. Tim Hanson, and Assistant Superintendent Allison Woods of MSD Warren Township Schools in Indiana for their sustained support. Special thanks to Rijenna Murray and the IU School of Social Work interns at the Moorhead Community Resource Center, whose work this fall brought the instrument into the field. Thanks to all Founding Members of Attendance USA who gave early input on framing and development as the bullseye for the field, and to Sharon Bradley and Shelneka Adams-Marsalone for the deep dives that made the Index comprehensive while ensuring it is available globally, and to Dr. Francis Bowen for the public-facing delivery of this work and research. We also thank Dr. Ineke Marshall and the global ISRD team, specifically the USA, Belize, Caribbean, and Indiana ISRD4 partnership teams, for their help administering the ISRD survey that helped frame the Index, and the Hunt Institute for welcoming Attendance USA during its October webinar to announce the Index and invite national partners into field testing.
Responsible use
The GG-FSI™ is a conversation, never a verdict. It is a research-development instrument, separate from any diagnosis, eligibility test, or professional safety assessment. The numerical score should never by itself determine child-protection action, service eligibility, school exclusion, healthcare access, or housing eligibility. Any “yes” on the Critical Safety Check triggers the practitioner’s required safety, reporting, or referral procedures.
Citation, copyright & access
To cite the instrument:
Copyright. The GG-FSI™, its items, scoring protocol, Family Stability Reserve™, and model are copyright © 2026 Carolyn Gentle-Genitty, PhD. All rights reserved. GG-FSI™, Gentle-Genitty Family Stability Index™, and Family Stability Reserve™ are trademarks of Carolyn Gentle-Genitty. A review copy of Version 1.0 is available below. Researchers, districts, and organizations request written permission at info@attendanceusa.org before administering, adapting, or translating it.
Use the GG-FSI™ online
The GG-FSI Family Stability Index Platform lets practitioners record each family conversation online. Every conversation is scored automatically: the Family Stability Score, Family Stability Reserve™, all six domain scores with stability bands, the cross-domain interaction level and the Safety Check. Families can be followed across conversations on a timeline, the program dashboard summarizes where a site stands, and the full dataset exports to CSV for your own analysts. Family-level data stays with your organization’s account.
A program covers one site, cohort or service window with unlimited families and conversations, as many practitioners as you need, and a program-level view for the coordinator.
Learn more and register → $499 per program · organization login
Join the field test
Schools, districts, and community organizations interested in piloting the GG-FSI™ and sharing practitioner feedback can write to info@attendanceusa.org. Your experience will help shape Version 2.0.
Selected references
- Agnew, R. (1992). Foundation for a general strain theory of crime and delinquency. Criminology, 30(1), 47–87.
- Allison, M. A., Attisha, E., & Council on School Health. (2019). The link between school attendance and good health. Pediatrics, 143(2), e20183648.
- Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. (2025). Economic well-being of U.S. households in 2024.
- Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development. Harvard University Press.
- Conger, R. D., & Donnellan, M. B. (2007). An interactionist perspective on the socioeconomic context of human development. Annual Review of Psychology, 58, 175–199.
- Fiese, B. H., Tomcho, T. J., Douglas, M., Josephs, K., Poltrock, S., & Baker, T. (2002). A review of 50 years of research on naturally occurring family routines and rituals: Cause for celebration? Journal of Family Psychology, 16(4), 381–390.
- Geduld, A. (2025, August 22). K-12 chronic absenteeism rates down from peak, but remain persistently high. The 74.
- Gentle-Genitty, C. S. (2009). Impact of schools’ social bonding on chronic truancy: Perceptions of middle school principals [Doctoral dissertation, Indiana University]. https://doi.org/10.7912/C2/123
- Gentle-Genitty, C. S., Keppens, G., & Kearney, C. A. (2025). Perception of School Social Bonding (PSSB) instrument: Structural and concurrent validity. Contemporary School Psychology, 29(1), 213–220. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40688-024-00512-9
- Hirschi, T. (1969). Causes of delinquency. University of California Press.
- Masten, A. S. (2014). Ordinary magic: Resilience in development. Guilford Press.
- Walsh, F. (2016). Strengthening family resilience (3rd ed.). Guilford Press.
- Ziol-Guest, K. M., & McKenna, C. C. (2014). Early childhood housing instability and school readiness. Child Development, 85(1), 103–113.
The full reference list, including Fomby & Cherlin (2007), Kearney (2008), and Healthy People 2030, appears in the Research Summary PDF.