Improving Attendance with Personalized Messages

This How-To Guide is designed for school staff who want to implement a personalized messaging intervention to improve student attendance. Personalized messages—sent via email, text message, robocall, or letters by mail—are a low-effort, low-cost strategy designed to improve attendance by providing families and caregivers with transparent, real-time information about their student’s cumulative absences each month. During the 2022-23 and 2023-24 academic years, NCRERN partnered with 47 rural districts in 16 states across the United States to study personalized messaging in grades K-12. We found personalized messaging to be an effective and low-cost intervention. Over the course of an academic year, personalized messaging decreased absences by between 1.7% and 4.4% in participating districts and cost roughly $4.00 per student.