Chronic absenteeism continues to be a challenge for schools and districts and has a direct impact on student success. To address this challenge, TalkingPoints is introducing the new Attendance Improvement Plus package to help schools proactively tackle attendance issues by fostering strong family partnerships.
Unlike typical one-way attendance communication, Attendance Improvement Plus builds meaningful family-school connections that enhance student outcomes. As part of the TalkingPoints platform, it reinforces our commitment to Universal Family Engagement—the practice of ensuring all families can support their child's education, regardless of barriers and circumstances.
The Attendance Improvement Plus package is designed as an add-on package to TalkingPoints Foundations enabling it to take advantage of TalkingPoints’ industry-leading translation and comprehensive family engagement tools.
The Attendance Improvement Plus package includes:
Automated Attendance Messaging Series (note: this feature, released for the 2024-25 school year will now be a complementary feature in the Attendance Improvement Plus package)
It requires TalkingPoints Connector for data integration with the student information system (SIS)
The Attendance Improvement Plus package helps you to turn real-time attendance insights into meaningful action —empowering schools to identify at-risk students, send targeted family messages, and automate attendance outreach for timely, proactive intervention.
When will the new Attendance Improvement Plus package be available?
The new Attendance Improvement Plus package will be available as an add-on license to TalkingPoints Foundations for back-to-school 2025.
Is there an additional cost for the new Attendance Improvement Plus package?
Yes. Special introductory pricing is available for the 2025-26 school year. Please contact your TalkingPoints Partner Success Manager or Account Executive (partners@talkingpts.org) for more details.
Where are Attendance Improvement Plus package features accessed in TalkingPoints?
From the left side menu, select ‘Attendance’ which goes to the student attendance dashboard and from there you access all of the attendance features.
Are there any technical requirements for partner districts to utilize the Attendance Improvement Plus package features?
Yes. TalkingPoints Connector is required as the data integration method for partners who want to utilize the Attendance Improvement package features as it enables the connection to the student information system (SIS) including attendance data. SIS data is shared and synced with TalkingPoints through the TalkingPoints Connector API.
Why did TalkingPoints create Attendance Improvement Plus?
Good attendance is essential for student success — it underpins the effectiveness of nearly all other school-based support systems. Yet chronic absenteeism remains a significant challenge, especially in the aftermath of the pandemic. Simply measuring and reporting attendance data is not enough to drive meaningful change.
To truly address attendance issues, schools need proactive strategies that start with understanding the challenges students and their families face. This requires two-way communication, enabling schools and families to work together. Building strong family-school partnerships is the essential first step — and it’s the foundation of Universal Family Engagement, which is central to our mission at TalkingPoints.
By fostering these connections, we empower schools to implement solutions that improve attendance and support long-term student success.