ASSESSMENT TOOLS
Assessments and screeners play a crucial role in understanding the factors contributing to a student’s non-attendance in school. By systematically evaluating a student's academic performance, social-emotional well-being, and environmental influences, educators can identify specific barriers that may be hindering participation. These tools not only provide insights into learning gaps or psychological challenges but also help uncover external issues such as family circumstances or community factors that influence a student’s engagement with school. Ultimately, a tailored approach, informed by comprehensive assessment data, enables schools to implement targeted interventions, fostering a supportive environment that encourages regular attendance and promotes overall student success.
The Washington Assessment of the Risks and Needs of Students (WARNS) is a brief (40 items) self-report measure for 11 to 18-year-old middle and high school youth. WARNS is designed to allow schools, courts, and youth service providers assess individual risks and needs that may lead to truancy or school failure, and to target interventions accordingly.
The WARNS takes approximately 10 to 30 minutes to administer and measures both past and current experiences in several domains that are critical to healthy social, emotional, and educational development.
The WARNS can be administered online via remote access to a secure server and provides an immediate score report at the end of each assessment.
The School Avoidance Alliance has been educating families and schools on school avoidance best practices and evidence-based strategies for the past ten years. We are fortunate to work with world-leading clinicians, researchers, and educators who contribute to our resources and support our mission.
The site also offers resources, for a fee, for educators and parents related to students who are school-avoidant.
Tackling the root causes of chronic absenteeism involves the whole system – ESDs, districts, schools, families, communities, community-based organizations, state agencies, and more. The Chronic Absenteeism (CA) Diagnostic Tool is designed to assist school districts in their efforts to reduce chronic absenteeism, and increase regular attendance as well as student belonging and engagement. The tool uses both quantitative and qualitative data to:
● Understand local drivers of chronic absenteeism within the school district and local community
● Survey school district policies and practices that are in place to support regular attendance
● Survey school district policies and practices that are needed to decrease and address the root causes of chronic absenteeism and improve regular attendance
● Assist the school district in selecting strategies that are culturally responsive, inclusive and equitable
● Identify the resources needed to support effective implementation of identified strategies to reduce chronic absenteeism
The chronic absenteeism diagnostic tool can be used in conjunction with, and as a result of, the comprehensive and integrated needs assessment process by districts, as outlined in the Aligning for Student Success: Integrated Guidance for Six ODE Initiatives. This diagnostic tool will help districts to identify barriers to attendance and highlights several different systemic areas within an educational system that may impact student attendance. Use of this diagnostic tool is anticipated to promote district efficacy in addressing attendance barriers that affect students at the local level.
Attendance Works provides a worksheet for understanding the root causes of abenteeism. This tool takes a holitistic approach to determing the root cause of absenteeism.
Three new tools to identify and address attendance barriers.
ELC has created three new tools to identify and address attendance barriers. Far too often, we see that families are held accountable for systemic or school-based barriers, instead of receiving needed supports. This set of resources helps families, schools, and Magisterial District Court Judges -the three key players in the truancy context- proactively identify and address attendance barriers while upholding the legal rights of students and families.