NorthEast Washington ESD 101

NEWESD 101 offers professional development, networking opportunities and technical assistance to assist schools with strengthening student and family engagement. We support schools with boosting attendance - striving to eliminate chronic absenteeism - and with reengaging students who have become disconnected from learning opportunities. 

Services & Supports Offered to Districts

Boosting Attendance & Reengagement Network (BARN)

BARN combines Improvement Science principles with the most current research on student attendance and engagement.  The network will bring together school teams of 3-5 people - in roles like principal, assistant principal, counselor, attendance secretary, MTSS specialist, etc. - to learn, practice and share.  To achieve the goal of increasing student attendance and engagement, teams will participate in:

• an individualized pre-meeting in August/September
• four face-to-face learning sessions with participating network schools
• three site-based action periods where teams will use Plan Do Study Act cycles to test change ideas

Teams will receive coaching and technical assistance during the action periods from the Attendance & Reengagement Coordinator. Learn more about this opportunity here.

Interested? Fill in the brief Expression of Interest form and we'll get in touch. Contact Allyson Fritz, Attendance & Reengagement Coordinator, with any questions.

 Coaching

We offer coaching for district and school administrators on integrating attendance & reengagement into the work of an existing school team, establishing a new team to implement a school-wide attendance strategy, or meaningfully exploring root causes of absences and partnering with students and families to find solutions. Contact us if interested.

Professional Development

Throughout the year we offer regional and statewide professional development opportunities on a variety of topics. Be sure to check pdEnroller regularly for local opportunities, and register for OSPI's Attendance & Truancy Newsletter to get access to the latest statewide offerings. We can also design context-specific trainings for administrators, teachers or school staff on key topics such as setting up and running an attendance team, creating or improving early warning systems, strategies for equitably reducing chronic absenteeism, Community Engagement Boards, etc. If you have a specific need or interest, reach out!

Technical Assistance

Eager to upgrade your attendance and truancy communications to be more human-centered? Need to update your district or school attendance policies to align with state requirements? Ready to develop processes for providing tiered supports for attendance, or looking for a better way to make attendance data-informed decisions? We can provide examples and assist you in these areas and others.

Looking for resources you can use in your school or district to build engagement and reduce chronic absences? Check out these sites:

• Attendance Works
• OSPI’s webpage on Attendance, Chronic Absence, and Truancy
• Be sure to register for OSPI's Attendance & Truancy Newsletter for the latest policy and funding updates, statewide professional development opportunities, resources and more

Chronic Absenteeism in NE Washington - What Does the Data Show?

The graph below combines the most recently available attendance data from the OSPI Report Card for the 59 school districts in NEWESD 101, comparing the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 school years. The regular attendance rate (percentage of students missing less than two days of school per month, on average), for students in our region increased slightly from the 2022 to 2023 school year (2.2%).

For additional data for the NE Washington region, including comparisons based on race/ethnicity, program characteristic, and other data, click here.