Many schools struggle to identify students at risk of falling into poor attendance patterns early enough to intervene effectively. Traditional attendance tracking is often inefficient and reactive, lacking a streamlined way to engage families in meaningful conversations about attendance barriers.
With Targeted Attendance Messages, a key feature of the new Attendance Improvement Plus package, schools can proactively address absenteeism in their attendance data through the new student Attendance Dashboard. Schools can quickly identify students with multiple absences in a week or specific absence types, such as unexcused with no reason, and send personalized messages to understand the cause and initiate a dialogue to offer support.
On the dashboard, custom attendance views can be configured to track key attendance flags, such as three absences in the past seven days, and an "At-Risk" tag can automatically be applied to support early intervention. Attendance staff can then send targeted messages directly from the dashboard, ensuring timely outreach to families.
All attendance-related messages are sent and received through the new Attendance Inbox, keeping communication organized and making it easy for staff to track conversations, respond to families, and foster direct engagement to prevent and address absenteeism.
When will Attendance Dashboard and Targeted Attendance Messages be available?
This feature will be available as part of the Attendance Improvement Plus package for back-to-school 2025.
Who will have access to the Attendance Dashboard and Targeted Attendance Messages?
Administrators are able to use roles and permissions to control which staff have access to the attendance features. Staff with these permissions will be able to access the attendance dashboard and send targeted attendance messages. Depending on their individual permissions, staff can choose to send targeted absence messages from the attendance inbox, their personal TalkingPoints inbox, or on behalf of the school (eg., sender name: Bay Elementary School).
Where can partners access the Attendance Dashboard and Targeted Attendance Messages ?
All attendance features are accessed by selecting ‘Attendance’ from the left navigation. This will open the student attendance dashboard. From the dashboard, by selecting a tile, the dashboard will filter data based on that tile, and the user can generate a targeted attendance message to that group, for example, students with three absences in the last seven days.
How does it work?
All attendance data is synchronized into the dashboard using TalkingPoints Connector, which provides direct data integration with the student information system (SIS).
The attendance data is reflected in the titles. Targeted attendance messages can be initiated from any tile on the dashboard.
The attendance dashboard features dynamic, customizable tiles that give you immediate access to key attendance data. You can quickly identify students with unexcused absences or multiple absences in a given week, while also being able to highlight those with strong attendance habits.
Schools can add their own custom tiles that can be configured to track key attendance flags, such as three absences in the past seven days, and an "At-Risk" tag can be applied to quickly recognize and support early intervention.
Once a tile is selected, a list of students connected to that tile will be displayed below. Students can be selected, and attendance staff can send targeted messages directly from the dashboard, ensuring timely outreach to families.
