Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free newsletter to keep up with statewide education policy and Memphis-Shelby County Schools.The year after COVID-19 hit, Memphis principal Kamie Cowan knew she needed to get students back in their seats.More than half of the students at Compass Berclair, a local K-8 charter school, were chronically absent in 2022, meaning they missed at least 18 days of school, or more than 10% of the school year.Last year, only three of the school’s 230 students met that mark. Cowan said that dramatic drop started in the 2022-23 school year, when she put together an attendance team that met every other week to review attendance data and problem solve.“We just started paying attention, I guess, which sounds simple,” she told Chalkbeat. “But that consistent time of paying attention, that’s where this shift started to happen.”Cowan said she believes any school can reduce chronic absenteeism with similar strategies. The key, she said, is relying on talented school staff and setting realistic goals. “It can be very daunting,” she said. “So making that team is really important, and then picking goals that are really clear and bite-sized to start, so you get some quick wins.” Memphis-Shelby County Schools leaders ramped up chronic absenteeism interventions this past year, aiming to reduce chronic absenteeism rates for the first time since 2017.High chronic absenteeism is one of six criteria state Republicans included in the law creating an appointed board to seize control of key MSCS decisions, including charter authorizations and contract approvals. The oversight board, which a federal judge temporarily blocked from operating last month, is meant to address district management and what Republicans say are years of academic underperformance. Students who are chronically absent are less likely to read on grade level by third grade and more likely to drop out of high school. An MSCS spokesperson told Chalkbeat that official absenteeism numbers for the district are currently under state embargo. In February, district leaders said 27% of MSCS students were at high risk for chronic absenteeism. That’s down from 31.5% in June 2025 and just above the district’s year-end target of 26.5%.They also said that close to 40% of MSCS high schoolers, or 12,000 total, were at risk of being chronically absent. That represented a 1 percentage point drop for Memphis-Shelby County high schoolers compared to last year. But it’s significantly higher than the state’s average high school chronic absenteeism rate of just over 23%.This past year, MSCS expanded its spending on efforts to combat chronic absenteeism. The district invested $4.4 million to place 78 attendance liaisons in schools across the region. It also launched a door-knocking initiative that yielded mixed results. Compass Berclair students monitor their own attendance dataCowan, the Compass Berclair principal, credits most of her school’s success in reducing chronic absenteeism to the attendance team she formed, which includes herself, the school secretary, counselor, and dean of academics. “All those roles are super significant,” Cowan said. “But if the principal is not on board and really supporting and navigating it, it can only go so far.”The secretary makes daily attendance calls to families of any student that’s absent. Each quarter, the team plans a field trip or out-of-uniform days to celebrate students or classes that improved their numbers. The school counselor meets with classes weekly to go through attendance data with the students.“The students at our school can tell you how many days they’ve been absent and how close they are to being chronic,” Cowan said. “It’s really important for them to be aware of that.”Cowan and her team sort students into tiers of risk level for chronic absenteeism to better tailor interventions. They host family meetings once a student reaches five absences. The meetings help school leaders identify specific barriers to attendance, Cowan said, most often including transportation. “Our demographic does not have a lot of grandparents and aunties and uncles that live in Memphis,” she added. “And it’s really hard to get kids to school, especially when you don’t have many people to lean on.”One strategy that’s worked well for her school is arranging parent carpools, Cowen said.Compass leaders also focus on creating a school culture that makes students want to show up and show up on time, she said. Every school day starts with a morning meeting where teachers play games or answer random questions with students. Cowan also uses free online resources from Attendance Works, a national nonprofit that works with schools and districts to boost attendance, to design the school’s tier system and brainstorm solutions. Compass Berclair also received coaching from Attendance Works through funding from the local nonprofit Hyde Family Foundation, which also is a Chalkbeat funder. Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.
