This guide is designed by Westat Insight (formerly Insight Policy Research) and American Institutes for Research to help state education agencies (SEAs), local education agencies (LEAs) identify and reflect on changes to attendance policies and practices to better align them with equity considerations. The guide invites teams to explicitly focus on one or more groups of students as part of increasing equity in attendance-related work. In addition to consideration of family income or socioeconomic status of student groups, the guide encourages consideration of other student groups that chronic absenteeism may disproportionately affect, such as students grouped by racial/ethnic identity, physical or cognitive ability, and/or circumstances such as housing stability. SEA and LEA staff may also use the guide to proactively consider equity when making changes in data collection on attendance and in practices related to communication with families about absenteeism.

Additional student engagement and attendance tools created by Student Engagement and Attendance Technical Assistance Center (SEAC) can be found on the U.S. Department of Education website.