How This School District Cut Chronic Absenteeism 40% with Naomi Tolentino Miranda

Learn how this school district cut chronic absenteeism by 40% through community outreach and building connectedness. Find out the attendance solutions they implemented to make a positive impact on school attendance.

In this powerful final episode, Naomi Tolentino Miranda, Coordinator of Student Support Programs with Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools, shares how to shift from punitive to proactive approaches when addressing chronic absenteeism - a crisis affecting 1 in 4 students nationwide.

Naomi shares research-backed strategies for understanding the "why" behind each student's absence and building school connectedness through trauma-informed practices. Learn how creating welcoming school environments empowers families to share their challenges and collaborate on personalized solutions.

This conversation reveals why data isn't something to fear but a powerful tool that helps identify hidden patterns and tailor interventions for different communities. Naomi explains how her innovative attendance dashboard transformed her district's approach, moving beyond average daily attendance to address the deeper issues of chronic absenteeism.

Whether you're an educator, administrator, or caregiver, you'll gain actionable insights to help every student feel connected, supported, and motivated to attend school.

💫Episode mentions

•  Attend to Achieve
• One Leader’s Plan to Cut Chronic Absenteeism—One Student at a Time
• Attendance Works - Hedy Chan
  • Reporting on Chronic Absence
  • Chronic Absence Research and Graphics
• Dr. Robert (Bob) Balfanz
  • Centering School Connectedness 
  • JHU School of Education 
  • Center for Educational Policy Research at Harvard University
• Calculating a Student’s Daily Attendance

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Overview 

01:00 Meet Naomi Tolentino Miranda 

02:58 Key Research and Researchers on Absenteeism 

05:44 Defining Chronic Absenteeism: Beyond Truancy 

08:39 Student Barriers Across Grade Levels 

11:42 Moving from Punitive to Proactive Approaches 

13:26 The Importance of Finding the "Why" 

16:58 Individualizing Solutions for Student Needs 

19:12 Creating Welcoming Spaces for Parents

22:03 Empowering Parent Voice 

23:55 The Power of Data: Creating an Attendance Dashboard 

27:30 Why Data Should Be a Tool, Not a Threat 

29:33 Final Thoughts: Every Student Has Different Needs 

31:08 Episode Wrap-Up

#ChronicAbsenteeism #TraumaInformedEducation #SchoolAttendance #EducationReform #StudentSuccess #DataDrivenEducation #SchoolConnectedness #ParentEmpowerment #EducatorResources #EveryStudentMatters

When coaches, teachers, administrators, and families work hand in hand, it fosters a school atmosphere where everyone is inspired and every student is fully engaged in their learning journey.

Transcript

Olivia: [00:00:00] Hi there. I'm so glad you're here. Here's what you'll gain by listening to the very last second of this conversation with Naomi Tolentino Miranda. Through my conversation with Naomi, you'll learn why addressing chronic absenteeism requires a shift from punitive approaches to individualized trauma-informed strategies that involve understanding each student's unique barriers, empowering caregiver voices and creating welcoming school environments where families feel safe sharing their challenges. 

Olivia: You'll leave the conversation with understanding the why behind each student's absence is crucial, why school connectedness is fundamental, and how data-driven approaches may reveal hidden patterns. Stay with us. I'm so happy to have you join our conversation today. This is Schoolutions Coaching and Teaching Strategies, the podcast that extends education beyond the classroom. A show that [00:01:00] offers educators and caregivers strategies to try right away and ensure every student receives the inspiration and support they need to thrive.

Olivia: I am Olivia Wahl, and I am so happy to welcome my guest today, Naomi Tolentino Miranda, let me tell you a little bit about Naomi. Naomi serves as the Coordinator of Student Support Programs with Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools Attend to Achieve and Prevention Programs. Naomi, I reached out to you after learning about your crusade against chronic absenteeism.

Olivia: You are amazing. Um, I read an Education Week piece by Evie Blad, um, and it highlighted you and your work. It was called, or it is called One Leaders Plan to Cut Chronic Absenteeism, One Student at a Time. This is an issue we are facing. It was accentuated significantly after Covid I, um, or Covid and beyond.

Olivia: I [00:02:00] know some families now consider taking vacation on off times of the year, like convenient as one extreme. But we're going to dig into the real issue of chronic absenteeism, um, that you have been studying. You have research-backed approaches to this that are working and that's why I drove you crazy to be a guest on this podcast, and you're so gracious with your time. So let's start off. What research or researcher do you lean on often in your role? 

Naomi: Absolutely. And thank you Olivia, for having me. Such an honor. Um, I will say, um, coming from the classroom, like being, uh, pushed to learn about chronic absenteeism and so, so it's been a learning curve for me, right? Um, learning about the issue and um, one of the key things that I've been doing in my [00:03:00] learning journey has been looking for the experts on the topic, right? So, um, I remember like it was yesterday, um, I attended an a conference where Attendance Works, um, was presenting where Hedy Chan was, the executive director of Attendance work. She was actually talking about chronic absenteeism. This is the first time ever that I've heard chronic absenteeism.

Naomi: Our district, we talk about attendance, we talk about average daily attendance, but I've never looked at chronic absent absenteeism. We focus a lot on attendance and truancy. So when, Hedy Chan was talking about chronic absenteeism, she has a strong partnership with Dr. Bob. We called Dr. Bob, um, I believe his full name is Robert Balfanz.

Naomi: He has a partnership with the Institute of Educational Science. He and Attendance Board Work a lot on talking about, [00:04:00] um, how do we prevent missed opportunity and what is chronic absenteeism? But then they talk a lot about, and we collected data to address chronic absenteeism with this idea that it is a whole child approach, right?

Naomi: It's a collective, it's not just about being in school. It's about social emotional learning. It's about trauma informed, it's about parent engagement. It's about culture and climate. So it's about everything that really impacts chronic absenteeism. So, Dr. Bob have a few research pieces around, um, addressing chronic absenteeism.

Naomi: And I think one of the, the, the biggest ones that I love, um, it about school connectedness, right? And the idea that when the students and the parents are connected to school, they're more likely to come to school. So that had been kind of like what has been driving in our work, we don't, we don't, we don't talk about that in our district.

Naomi: We're looking at truancy, [00:05:00] we're looking at when kids are, um not here. So that idea of school connectedness really like resonated. Um, and we started digging in around like what does that look like for us at the school district? Right? Um, as a district at that time, we were also starting to implement our trauma-informed framework in our district. 

Naomi: So we were like, but, but this is exactly what he's talking, he's talking about trauma-informed, social emotional learning. So my thought was like, how do, how do we just partner and then do it together? How like why can't I just not use the same strategies that we're learning and we're going to implement for social emotional learning and trauma-informed should then address chronic absenteeism. 

Olivia: This is a systemic problem that needs a systemic solution. So I want everyone to take that in. Even though your lens is one student at a time. This has to be all hands on deck. [00:06:00] Um, including every the community, the caregivers feeling welcome to be part of the conversation. The fascinating research I've been looking at is what is, and please let me know if this is correct, but it, the research I just read was one in four students struggles with chronic absenteeism. That's crazy. 

Naomi: Just crazy. 

Olivia: And then I'd also love for you to speak to what is the definition of being chronically absent? What, what does that mean? 

Naomi: Well, that's actually a great question. And um, that was part of why, we definitely partnered with Attendance works. So Attendance Works defines chronic absenteeism for a student when they miss 10% of the school, um, a year. So just missing 10%. Now, the tricky part about chronic absenteeism, another tricky, I will say the interesting part of chronic absenteeism, is that when we're looking at chronic absenteesim, we're looking at excused absences, unexcused absences, [00:07:00] and suspensions. But we're looking just at average daily attendance, which is why we as a district, and a lot of districts used to focus (before chronic absenteeism was presented to us), but we were only looking at unexcused absences, which is what caused truancy, right? So we were focusing very, in a kind of punitive approach.

Naomi: So chronic absenteesim, what it does is that it help us look at attendance from a prevention and proactive approach. Um, one of the things about, um, Attendance Works has a beautiful graphic that is just like, imprinted in my head and it's like they show how like the ADA of a school district looks amazing; the average daily attendance that’s the ADA.

Naomi: Um, but then when they look at the chronic absenteeism, it was very high and they were talking about how like when we look at only ADA and truancy, it really masked a deeper problem, right? Because we're not looking at those students [00:08:00] that they might be in school, but they're missing because of health reasons, because of social emotional, because mental health, because of different reasons that we know where they are, so we don't put an alert on them. We're

Naomi: We’re not putting strategies to support them because we know where they are. Parents are calling, so I know where, where Naomi is, why do I need to call her? Right? Why do I need to check on me? And she'll come when she comes. But looking at ADA only it really focus on those students that we just don’t know where they are.

Naomi: 

Olivia: That's so interesting. 

Naomi: It is because chronic absenteeism is really that preventive lane. Um, that really help us to dig deeper on the issue and the, the challenges, the barriers that a student have with coming to school. 

Olivia: So Naomi, I'm hoping you can highlight for us then you just spoke a little bit to the barriers that you see, as well as that punitive approaches don't work. So can you speak to, just offer some examples of barriers from [00:09:00] your teacher days of working with immigrant students as well as, um, then move in if you can, to the punitive approaches not working and what you're doing instead. 

Naomi: Um, I think there's a few things that you need to consider. One, um, the, the level, 'cause one of the things that we noticed is that elementary, middle school, and high school barriers are very different. Also, at least in our school district, we have 43 campuses. Every school has a very different, um, um, needs and challenges. I will say that overall, um, the most common one from the student level, um, I will say from the student level, the biggest one, does the student feeling connected to one adult. Um, there was a lack of connectedness from our students.

Naomi: That was a big barrier. Um, from the parent and the, and the family, uh, there was a big barrier in communication. And I'm not talking just about language - that is a barrier. I feel like [00:10:00] our district had good things in place to support language, um, but it wasn't about language. It's that communicating the things that the family needs.

Naomi: Right. We had a lot of, um, in our district, we have 65 languages. We have translators, but we didn't, we, we were really not paying attention about one - the cultural needs, um, what education means to different cultures, what being in a classroom mean to different cultures. So we were sending the message but not the right message.

Naomi: So the parents were getting attendance. They, they get the attendance guidelines, but they were not understanding them. Now, when we look at a middle school and high school, whole different challenges, um, especially in the pandemic. Um, two things that we, that we looked at because of the, also the economic impact that the pandemic had.

Naomi: We have a lot of students that moved to the force or the, to the workforce. Um, and now they're also providers in the family. Um, so [00:11:00] we have that and also with a lot of our um, high school students, one of the challenges that a lot of our migrant students when they were coming to, um, our schools, they, they were very honest and they were like, we're, we're here to work and send money at home.

Naomi: We're not here to come to school. And they were not understanding what, why do I have to be in school? And so, so again, go back to that messaging of the students understanding the power that it is in education. You know, that it's not just to check a box that you were in school, but what is really gonna open for your future.

Olivia: Opportunities.

Naomi: Yes! Opportunities? Absolutely. So for high school students, that was one of the biggest barriers that we had understanding, right? Um, that in that, um, in accordance of education. Um, so I think those are some of the top ones that, that we can think, um. I can talk to you for, for us as a, as a district, the biggest barrier for [00:12:00] us as a, as a team was, um, shifting, making that shift, um, from like punitive to proactive.

Naomi: Um, there is a mindset shift that has to happen that it has to start with leadership. And as we talk about, this is a, uh, a collective approach. But it's also means that from us as a district, it's not, it's not just teachers understanding, it's like also district leaders. It's like our superintendent, our cabinet, everyone understanding that we have to have that mindset shift.

Olivia: Yeah, those are really good examples. And then I would also say a word just came to mind for me alongside punitive the word judgment. And I, I have friends and their children struggle with chronic absenteeism, and so I think I wanna just point out - getting to the why. 

Naomi: Why. Yes. Getting to the why. 

Olivia: What is the obstacle for that individual [00:13:00] child to get on the bus to school or to walk into that building? It is so individualized. We have to be so precise for each family, and that's why I adore the work you’re doing because it is so tailored and, and it honors the caregivers. It honors the entire family that's living this. It is so hard on caregivers as well. To have a child that doesn't want to go to school.

Olivia: It is exhausting. It's draining. And so you've spoken to caregivers that may not un unnecessarily understand the why. The why for their child. There are also families that the caregivers know exactly why their child needs to go to school, and it feels impossible, especially for older kids to get them to go. What advice would you have for them? 

Naomi: Try to get to the why. Um, try to talk to the family and talk to the student about what are the [00:14:00] reasons. Now, depending on the why and what are some of the reasons, then we can connect them to the right resources. So for example, we have students that, they have PTSD, they had trauma. And there are triggers in school that doesn't help them. Um, and we are able to address those and provide support, but we, we will know and we ask the student and we ask the parents, you know, and we get to that problem. So to be transparent, it's a very individual situation. Uh, what I will tell, what if we tell our parents is that once we identify, then how can we connect you to resources to support?

Naomi: And sometimes it’s in-school support. So we are, sometimes that means that I need to connect you with a social worker in the school. Sometimes it’s outside support. So we have to partner with those resources that we have in the community. But I think the [00:15:00] key is if, for school district, a school support, is that - it's asking the why. Getting to that issue and then connecting them and creating a plan. And again, if we don't have the resources, then finding those resources in the community to provide that support that the student needs to feel successful at school.

Naomi: And that sometimes mean like a adjusting schedules. We realize that we have a lot of our students that are coming from refugee camps and they have to get, um, therapy and counseling services, and that was impacting the chronic absenteeism because they were using school hours. So one of the things that we did is that can they come to school so the student doesn't have to miss school and it’s embedded it's integrated on their schedule.?

Naomi: But they're still getting the services. They're that doesn't impact the chronic asthma system and they're getting the services that they need. Right? So things like that, it's just, again, it's a very one-on-one situation, but those are things that we can do as a [00:16:00] school district to support once we know the why. But again, getting to the why.

Olivia: It's the why. And also I just had a conversation with a caregiver and the high school did something for her son that was so impactful. It was a beautiful scenario. Um, you have to know the why though. Again, we're gonna keep going back to that. So you, once you know the why, you can move mountains in, in a really positive way. Um, and it has to be both the school district being curious. As well as the caregiver. So the caregiver cannot get to the why if they feel like the school is judging them, if they feel like this school is, um, looking down on them. So it took a really special conversation to happen of realizing teenagers need a lot of sleep.

Olivia: Let's face it, the school districts that start too early, there is copious, copious amounts of research around later start times the older kids get. Um, but what [00:17:00] this caregiver realized is my child has two study halls throughout the day. Couldn't we flip the schedule and start the day with the two study halls and then switch the classes to be later in the day? Same, same class, different section. And so now this student's day begins at 10:00 AM where it was beginning at 8:00 AM before, and just taking those study halls, moving them to the beginning of the day. That student has not missed a day of school since. It's just giving that extra time to roll in slowly.

Olivia: It was so individualized and yet honoring of the student’s needs, of the caregiver’s needs. They, they knew what was going on. So I find that just incredible. What resources have you also connected caregivers with that we can offer listeners? 

Naomi: Absolutely. So, um, for elementary, again, depending on [00:18:00] the level. For elementary, the biggest resource that has helped for us, um, for parent, um, has been parent classes, um, actually for middle school and high schools too. So we partner with an organization that provides, um, parent classes for students that, um, that they have either, um special challenges that parents just don’t know how to handle.

Naomi: Um, and this can be medical, like this can be, uh, discipline, this can be anything. Uh, I think there's a very powerful, when you give the parents the resources, um, it happens very frequently in middle school and high school that parents are like, I just, he doesn't wanna come to school. I just, I dunno what to do.

Naomi: I, I dunno. Well, let, let's help you, let's create a plan. Like we have parents that have come and say. I, I, no one has told me how to be a parent. No one has given me…

Olivia: There's no magic wand. There's no book. 

Naomi: Right? It's like, and they, and they come and say, no, I don't have support. I don't have anyone to know to, well, like, let's, [00:19:00] let's be that support. Let's connect them to someone that can help them navigate through difficult situation then and, and understand like what is really happening? Like is it a behavior issue? What are some of the strategies that work at home that we can then bring at school and then we can collaborate and partner together on those strategies?

Naomi: Right? So I think that that parents support for us as a district, again, it goes back to the school connect and as Dr. Bob shares a lot, is that we have to work very hard to create those spaces that parents feel comfortable to enter, come and have those conversations. Like you said, making sure the family, the parents, um, don't feel judged, that parents don't feel, you know, that we're telling them you're a bad parent.

Naomi: That we're not pointing them out, but we are, but we wanna be partners that we wanna collaborate on the student success of academic but also social emotional. Right? So for us, it has been creating those spaces where parents were welcome. So [00:20:00] one of the things our district did recently, um, is that we opened The Welcome Center at the District Office that if you don't feel comfortable to go to school, come to us.

Naomi: We'll figure it out. We'll support you. We've had a conversation. What are some of your challenges? But that we can have, again, conversations and connect you again, sort of specific resources depending on the situation, but as a district creating those spaces and in our schools too, creating those spaces. So we've had to do a lot of training, um, around being welcoming and around climate and culture. Making sure that, what does that look like for parents? So they can come in school and feel like I can sit down and have a conversation and figure it out if that the school is a partner. It's a support.

Naomi: So when figure it out, it's like you say you say, you have this mom that's like, I don't, I don't. I don't know what to do. He doesn't want to go into school. Well, let's have a conversation. Let's talk to an expert that can talk. Walk us through the science. Does he have routines at home? You know, making routines at home. It [00:21:00] key for student. When it comes to attendance, you don't have routines? Then let’s help make you a routine for your kid. 

Olivia: It’s also the why when it comes to assignments and making the tools accessible. Where I live, they use, um, Canvas as a communication tool, and the caregivers can be observers on their students' accounts and it offers a myriad of tools, but it is a responsibility of the caregiver to a degree to check-in.

Olivia: Um, and I think part of the release, especially in middle school world, the hot mess of middle school as a caregiver is letting go and releasing responsibility because the students have to step up. They have to own their learning journey. And so it's, it's, I think that conversation between a caregiver and their child to say, when are we checking in with each other to make sure you're on point. Because what often happens with chronic absenteeism I see is that kids get [00:22:00] so far behind academically, it's a big dark hole that they feel like they cannot get out of. What have you experienced with that?

Naomi: There's tons of research about mentoring programs and how they can be successful with the academic systems. Um, and in for us, it has been very critical to embrace that mentoring program and making sure that the students are empowered by other students, right? That they have incentives. A lot of the things that I'm able to move is because the parent voice is so strong. And I don't feel like sometimes parents realize that.

Naomi: Right. But when I have the parent voice, then I can say, well, this is what the parents are saying, this is what they need when the parents organize and share and talk about challenges and how like, hey, the schedule is not working. I can't change that, but if the parents are talking about it organized, they come to the board meetings, they share about that. They're gonna look at it.

Olivia: They'll listen. 

Naomi: Yeah. They're, they'll listen. You [00:23:00] know, there is so much more power, so much power in the parent voice. So one of the things that our Welcome Center is helping is that empowering parents to have a voice and come and share making sure that their parents know that and they know there is power in their boys and empowering them to, to come and talk to us.

Naomi: And speak up and challenge because they really, they're the one who know what's best for the kid. They know they're just better than we do. And we can come, we and solution, and this comes also to that, um, individualized approach - that not every student is, is the same. So it helps us understand that if we're gonna do something, we need to look at different, you know, different learning in our own ways.

Naomi: We have to look at different ways the students learn that the student adapt. It helped us to stay on track as a district. So I think it's been very powerful to just empower parents and have them share the voice and help us create strategies that really work for them. And [00:24:00] resources that really work for them. So I know that's a little bit off what you asked, but…

Olivia: It's not. It's not. It's so helpful. And you just gave me a perfect segue because I would be neglectful if I didn't ask you about the attendance dashboard you created. It allowed you to not only see the individual student patterns, but at bigger trends, district trends, school-based trends. So please speak to that. 

Naomi: And I think it goes back to, if we as a district, again, we were only looking at ADA. And I, I told you, I still remember when they showed that graph of like how the ADA can be great and the chronic absenteeism. I was like, what does that look like for our district? And we looked at it.

Naomi: And it was, yeah - we have a lot of schools – like all of our buildings, were really like, oh, attendance is great. We have 92%, we have 95%. We're so good. But then the chronic absenteeism was like over 30%. 40%. And I was like, well…let’s look at that. [00:25:00] First, just on the overview level, it really helped with like – well this and to identify which schools we really needed to focus and support, because yes, while their average daily attendance, or ADA was great, but, but a lot of their students that were there, they're really not there. They're missing a lot of school. But that was the biggest thing. It helped us identify at the district level, it help us identify which school needed extra support. 

Naomi: So what we did is that then we created a dashboard for each one of their schools. Um, and we starting to, we, we were using the Atlas protocol to look at the data. So based on the Atlas protocol, um, with that social emotional, um, and trauma-informed lens, we were looking at like, okay, what, what's missing from the data? Right? What's missing? We're missing…then we look at by, um, ethnicity and race, we're missing where we're looking at by language.

Naomi: Right? I told you we have speaks like, oh, like around 65 languages in our district. But we didn't have a [00:26:00] way to look at it by ish, by, you know, so let's look at that. Let's look at what of the communities that are this information, um, as simple as by grade, by classroom. So we had our high schools. Um, we started a new, um, schedule, but not every high school, um, was following the same schedule.

Naomi: So that gave us an opportunity, like, let's, let's look at that. Let's look at the chronic absenteeism. And that helped us actually move forward to the right schedule. Yeah! The findings were surprising and a little bit alarming to be transparent. But, but it's good sometimes, like, and I feel like this is something that Hedy from Attendance Works says this a lot.

Naomi: She says like, bad data, it doesn't mean that we like, it's not a, it's not a threat for us. It's a tool. It's a power. When we understand of data, when you know we really, exactly. When we know, then you can look at what are really the strategies that [00:27:00] we need to put in place. As the district administrator, one of the things that for me was very powerful was that okay, not every school have the same like the data founder family at every school.

Naomi: So that means that I can create a one-strategy fits all. I need to then go deeper to each school and look at what are their specific needs, and then create strategies. So the data was really being just such a powerful tool. And that's when then we love to create those attendance. So then, okay, after an attendance in your specific school. Let's look at the data. What is the data telling you? What is really telling us what are some of the groups that need extra support? And then how can we take those strategies that we have in place and adapt them to really address the need of your school?

Naomi: And then we're starting to move the chronic, see a movement in the chronic absenteesim. And because we're not having one strategy for all, because we can't do it, we talk about every student is different, but district level, every school is different. Right? [00:28:00] Looking at that again, that looking at the data, sometimes it's sometimes, like I know when I was talking to principal, they're like, I'm so sorry…the data.

Naomi: And I'm like, no, don't, don't apologize. This is the tool. This is, this is really something that's gonna help us. So let's not be afraid of looking at data. Let's actually take advantage of deep dive on that data and what it's telling us about, especially about what are really the groups in our school that are missing out, that are really struggling because then we go to the why and then we can create a strategies that are really effective to that specific school. 

Olivia: Naomi, you are a gift to the world of education. It's just you offer hope. Um, and what I mean by that is it's, you are so proactive, you are so precise, and truly caring you, you care. And I think, you know, in this world where we are right now, we need the [00:29:00] people like you that care deeply for children, um, and also for their families, for the caregivers, for the teachers.

Olivia: Like every layer as a whole. It's a whole, it's that whole approach. And I saw you move your hands because it's the multi-layered approach. There's so much to be said around data, feeling scary. Being defined by data where you're flipping the script, you're like, nope, we've gotta know. Let's, let's just put it all, all the cards, all the complexities out on the table, and then let's have some conversations and make a plan to move forward.

Olivia: And I think what people don't realize is when, you know, even if it's awful, awful news, it is actually it - it's this sense of relief. 

Naomi: Absolutely. 

Olivia: Because you can never make a realistic plan if you don't know what you're actually dealing with. Um, you are just a beacon of hope, as far as I'm concerned. Thank you. 

Naomi: You're so sweet. 

Olivia: Thank you so much for taking the time to have this [00:30:00] conversation. You're amazing. 

Naomi: Absolutely. Absolutely. But you, you are right. You know, like, I think when going back to looking at, at the students like needs from the student, um. We really, really need to like deep dive from that data and, and, and understand, um, what strategy doesn't fit. All right? And we need to, we have those big challenges and that's what I'm like always the question of like, what are your biggest challenges? And it’s so hard, because I can tell you the top one, but every family is going through something so different. Every student have the brand need um, and I think. I think what we need to look is like as a, as a district, as a building, continue to create those spaces that the panelists and students feel safe, and welcome to come and have this conversation so we can partner and find solution to those specific challenges that they're facing. It’s so key.

Olivia: And I will [00:31:00] include all of the research, the researchers you mentioned, I will include links to the article that uplifts your work. And just, and also I'll put in any of the contact information you want shared and so people can get in touch to continue to pick your brain because you have you’re, an endless resource. Absolutely. Um, you're amazing. Thank you so much. Take care. 

Naomi: No, thank you for having me. Bye-bye.

Olivia: Yeah, bye. Schoolutions Coaching and teaching strategies is created, produced and edited by me, Olivia Wahl. Thank you to my older son Benjamin, who created the music playing in the background. You can follow and listen to Schoolutions wherever you get your podcasts or subscribe to never miss an episode and watch on YouTube. Thank you to my guest, Naomi Tolentino Miranda, for sharing how we can shift from punitive to proactive and positive approaches when addressing chronic absenteeism.

Olivia: Now I'd love to hear from you. Send me an email at  [00:32:00] schoolutionspodcast@gmail.com. Let me know what resonated most from my conversation with Naomi. And tune in every Monday for the best research-backed coaching and teaching strategies you can apply right away to better the lives of the children in your care. Stay tuned for my bonus episodes every Friday where I'll reflect and share connections to what I learned from the guests that week. See you then.