Frederick Elementary Leads BCP on Cutting Chronic Absenteeism

Last year, Baltimore Curriculum Project (BCP) launched the Transforming Attendance Initiative, to help its six-member network of schools address the critical challenge of chronic absenteeism, which public schools across Maryland and the nation are facing.

During its first year of the program, BCP reduced network-wide chronic absenteeism from 45.55% to 37.85%. The Initiative reinforced the importance of real-time data, strong family relationships, coordinated attendance teams, and interventions tailored to each school community.

Frederick Elementary School made the greatest improvement in attendance across the BCP network in 2025-26 and is continuing to put those lessons into action this school year. From SY2024–25 to SY2025–26, chronic absenteeism at Frederick fell from 73% to 55.3%, while daily attendance increased from 81.1% to 87.4%.

And the work continues this year. In August, Frederick’s Average Daily Attendance (ADA) was 92%, and so far in September, ADA is 92.5%.

Building on Experience

Frederick has been building its attendance team, known as the A-Team, for several years. Principal Tetra Jackson, Ms. Kadijah Turner, and Ms. Jill Usher have worked together over the past five years to develop whole-school attendance practices. This year, they are fine-tuning that approach and starting early.

One such approach began this summer, when Frederick staff contacted families whose children needed immunizations to attend school. Using phone calls, home visits, a mobile health van, and referrals to the health department helped remove a key barrier before school began. 

The school also reached out this past summer to students who had been chronically absent last year, using attendance data to identify families who might need additional support.

Making Attendance a Team Effort

At Frederick, attendance is a shared responsibility. The A-Team reviews attendance information, coordinates outreach, and determines next steps. When a student is absent, the school makes contact by 9:30am that same day to learn more about the circumstances and offer support to get them to school that day, if possible. 

For students who miss several consecutive days, A-Team members engage in a coordinated approach. They:

• Conduct home visits to meet with families.
• Have teachers document family contacts, which allows the team to track outreach and follow up. 
• Document and send a quarterly Attendance Report Card for families to clearly set expectations and strengthen communication between school and family.

This coordinated approach reflects a key finding from BCP’s Transforming Attendance Initiative report: a formalized team approach to attendance improves coordination and follow-through.

Read the full report here.

Frederick also focuses on making attendance something students want to celebrate. Students can earn “FES Bucks” for attending every school day that week, which they can exchange for prizes or save toward larger rewards in the school’s Kidz Korner school store.

Read about the Kidz Korner store.

We are excited to continue this important work and see Frederick build on its progress, while supporting attendance growth across all six BCP schools.