12/19/11 Attendance Project Gets Results!   An attendance improvement project kicked off by the Providence Children’s Initiative and the faculty and staff at Providence’s Fogarty Elementary is having impressive results. “In October we identified over 40 kindergarteners who were chronically absent or tardy,” said Michelle Cortés-Harkins, director of the Providence Children’s Initiative, a Family Service of Rhode Island-led collaboration.  “Letters were sent home to families offering assistance to overcome problems, which included transportation and health-related issues. The response has been very positive and many family issues have been resolved that were barriers to attendance.” The Providence Children’s Initiative also held workshops for parents on attendance. The attendance improvement intervention was developed by the Providence Children’s Initiative based on a review of best practices.  “We tapped ideas that worked nationally and brought them to South Providence,” said Ms. Cortés-Harkins. The results: To date, over 60 percent of the targeted children who were chronically absent have improved their attendance and are no longer considered chronically absent—which is defined as missing 10 percent of the school days.  About 36 percent of the targeted children who were chronically tardy—defined as being late 10 percent of the school days—no longer fall into that category.  “This is a great start,” said Fogarty school principal Carolyn Johnston. In addition, the Providence Children’s Initiative and Fogarty staff and faculty are focusing on other grades, with teachers posting lists of students with perfect attendance and giving “shout-outs” to students improving attendance.  Local rapper “Mr. Deep Positivity” has presented at school assemblies, and recently recorded a video with classes who had the best attendance. Recently, the overall school has seen attendance rates as high as 97 percent, while the usual rate has been around 93 percent. “This wonderfully cooperative effort is getting results,” said Fogarty’s principal, Carolyn Johnston. The Providence Children’s Initiative, a program of Family Service of Rhode Island, is a grassroots effort inspired by the work of Geoffrey Canada and the Harlem Children’s Zone, to improve student and family education, economic, employment and social outcomes.