Lifting Up Attendance in Rural Districts: A Multi-Site Trial of a Personalized Messaging Campaign

This multi-site randomized controlled trial evaluates the LIFT Up Attendance personalized messaging intervention implemented in 47 rural school districts across 16 U.S. states during the 2022–23 and 2023–24 school years. The intervention sent caregivers periodic messages containing information about their child’s recent absences, reminders about the importance of attendance, and suggested attendance goals. Results show that personalized messaging significantly reduced student absences by 1.7% in intent-to-treat estimates and by 4.4% when messages were actually received, with effects generally consistent across grade levels and student populations. The study also finds the intervention to be highly cost-effective, averaging about $4 per student, though implementation challenges—such as technical setup issues, messaging filters, and incomplete caregiver contact information—affected fidelity in some districts. Overall, the findings demonstrate that low-cost behavioral “nudge” strategies can meaningfully improve attendance in rural districts and provide scalable evidence-based solutions for schools facing post-pandemic absenteeism challenges.

Read the updated working paper and a policy and practice summary here.