what are some ways to improve attendance on repeat offenders
Denise,
We have a person assigned to contacting, via phone, anyone who is absent (the goal is within 24 hours of the attendance being posted) to follow-up to see if they are having any problems, etc. We started this a couple of terms ago and have found that now students are at least starting to notify their instructors in advance of an absentism. So it seems oversight can stem the tide :)
The biggest key is follow up. If you get a student back in school who had poor attendance, don't assume that these things will change. Follow up with them every day that they are in school. Make them know that you care about their attendance. You will be surprised how well this works.
Who's responsible for tracking and following up, Brian?
This falls to the DOE or Retention Coordinators. We are working to develop a system in our database that can issue reminders. Right now, they just have to jot it down in their planners.
This is probably one of the more difficult things to do well -- only a couple of my teams have a good grip on it. But these are also the teams who make their retention budgets each month.
