The Brownsville Independent School District has long been a testament to educational excellence. It is known for its service in empowering the region’s students. The district experienced good attendance before the COVID-19 pandemic but saw a decline after, prompting Brownsville ISD to launch the Every Day Matters campaign to promote student attendance.
“After the pandemic, we nationally saw a decline in attendance. National records show that one out of three students is absent daily. We saw our attendance percentage drop. I think that the mentality during the pandemic was you have the sniffles, stay home because you may be contagious and that mentality continued in the school systems after the pandemic,” said Dr. Nereida Cantu, Chief Operations Officer at Brownsville ISD.
The campaign is meant to take a new, multipronged approach to the issue of attendance. A key goal of the campaign process is to involve all stakeholders in attendance, particularly parents, and make them aware of its importance for student success. It features task force committees at each school that meets every six weeks to analyze and improve attendance.
“The committee members include the principal, it includes community members, it includes students, it includes teachers and it includes business representatives. The idea is that this committee meets every six weeks and they identify what are their attendance trends for their campus.”
The mandatory minimum attendance, as defined by the state of Texas, is 90%, which allows for 18 days missed from the school year. At Brownsville ISD, the goal is higher. It varies by education level, with a 96% attendance goal at elementary schools, 95% at middle schools, and 94% at high schools.
The campaign committees are also tasked with creating weekly incentives, such as extended recess, field days, and pizza parties, to encourage student attendance.
Daily attendance is important for a child’s education because after a student has missed class, the learning lost from missing a day of instruction is often irreplaceable.
“While we make every effort to make up, re-teach, and do tutorials, you’re talking about a full day, eight periods at the secondary level, nine periods in some cases. Then, at the elementary level, you’re talking about a full day of all subject areas. It’s impossible to make it up in a tutorial session.”
A significant part of the campaign has been building relationships and educating parents about their child’s attendance. Efforts are also made to reach out to parents when their child is absent, such as sending notes to parents when a student has been chronically absent.
“I’m working very closely with the Parent Engagement Office. What we do is we’ve provided training to them, and we’ve completed workshops with close to 1000 parents right now. In the training, we show them national research that students fall a grade level below if they miss more than 10 days,” said Dr. Cantu.
According to Dr. Cantu, attendance is more than just coming to class and learning daily — it is about learning the lifelong duties and responsibilities needed to succeed in the real world.
“We also help parents understand that our goal is not just the attendance, but it’s also a life skill. Students need to understand that we have responsibilities, as a student, your responsibility is to come to school.”
“I share with parents in the training that if they are employed, ‘Would your employer like for you to be absent 18 times in a year, in 187 days?’ And, of course, they all say ‘no,'” said Dr. Cantu.
Brownsville ISD’s Every Day Matter will continue to promote student attendance by raising awareness and engaging with the community until attendance has been raised.
“Our ultimate goal is that every parent at Brownsville ISD understands the importance of education and being in school every day. That is our ultimate goal, and we plan to continue this campaign until we can achieve that.”
