'Every Student. Every Day.': Improving attendance one student at a time

CHAMPAIGN-URBANA, Ill. (WAND) — In partnership with the Champaign County Community Coalition, Champaign Unit #4 and Urbana SD #116 are combating chronic absenteeism with their new "Every Student. Every Day." campaign.

In the 2024-2025 school year, Unit #4 had chronic absenteeism at 34.8% and USD #116 at 38.9%, a stark increase from the 25.4% state average.

Dionne Webster, Urbana #116 Director of Family Engagement and Student Supports, said the goal of "Every Student. Every Day." is involving members of every aspect of the community, including family members, community leaders, neighbors and faith leaders.

"I'm just stressing the importance of attendance because it's become an issue that we need help with. We cannot do it alone," Webster said.

They are rolling out the campaign in phases: Phase 1 is reaching community leaders and elected officials, Phase 2 is spreading messaging, and Phase 3 is increasing education on chronic absenteeism. They hope that by decreasing chronic absenteeism, they will increase community and test scores.

"There is a strong correlation between daily student attendance and academic achievement. We know, and we strongly believe that education is the ticket to the middle class society's greatest equalizer. And if we can get students in front of our teachers every day in person as much as humanly possible, we know that our community will benefit greatly from that," said James Harden, Unit #4 executive director of school improvement and community engagement.

If their universal messaging doesn't work, they plan to work with students individually as a second-tier intervention.

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