Present Today, Prepared for Tomorrow

Attendance Data Review Protocol

UM Attendance Study (Focus group and Survey Results)

Attendance is the foundation on which every other outcome in a student's education is built. A student cannot benefit from great teaching, strong relationships, or targeted support systems on a day they are not present. This section explains why attendance matters in Montana and how this page connects to the state's broader improvement work.

Why Attendance Matters in Montana

Relationship Between Attendance, Achievement, Graduation, and Workforce Readiness

Regular attendance is one of the strongest predictors of academic achievement, on-time graduation, and long-term success. Students who miss significant instructional time—even when absences are excused—are more likely to fall behind academically, become disengaged, and face greater challenges graduating on time.

Consistent attendance also builds essential workforce readiness skills, including reliability, responsibility, time management, and follow-through. By improving attendance, Montana schools help prepare students not only for graduation but also for success in college, careers, and life.

Connection to Montana OPI Strategic Goals

This page supports Montana OPI's strategic priorities around student engagement, whole-child wellbeing, and closing opportunity gaps for rural, tribal, and underserved student populations. Attendance data serves as an early-warning indicator that helps schools intervene before achievement gaps widen.

Alignment with Comprehensive School Improvement

Under the Montana ESSA Plan, attendance is a key accountability indicator and an essential measure of school success. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires states to include at least one indicator of school quality or student success in their accountability systems, and Montana has selected attendance as this measure.

Attendance improvement should not exist separately from a school's continuous improvement efforts. Schools identified for Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI), Additional Targeted Support and Improvement (ATSI), Targeted Support and Improvement (TSI), or implementing MTSS should use attendance data as a core component of their comprehensive needs assessment, root cause analysis, goal setting, and ongoing progress monitoring. Integrating attendance into school improvement planning helps ensure that barriers to student engagement are addressed alongside academic achievement and other indicators of success.

Guiding Principles

• Prevention before intervention — invest first in the conditions that make school a place students want to be.
• Attendance as engagement — treat absence as a signal to understand, not simply a rule to enforce.
• Whole Child approach — address academic, social-emotional, health, and basic-needs barriers together.
• Shared responsibility — schools, families, and communities all hold a piece of the solution.
• Continuous improvement — use data cycles (PDSA) to refine strategies rather than treating any plan as final.

PEAK Research

Pathways to Elevate Attendance and Knowledge Research Project

The PEAK Research Project is a three-year statewide study focused on improving student attendance in Montana’s CSI (Comprehensive Support & Improvement) schools. Led by the UM’s PJW College of Education and Montana Safe Schools Center in collaboration with the Office of Public Instruction (OPI), PEAK works directly with schools, students and caregivers to uncover local successes, deepen understanding, and implement meaningful, community-chosen strategies to promote stronger student engagement.  

Attendance is the foundation on which every other outcome in a student's education is built. A student cannot benefit from great teaching, strong relationships, or targeted support systems on a day they are not present. This section explains why attendance matters in Montana and how this page connects to the state's broader improvement work.

• Prevention before intervention — invest first in the conditions that make school a place students want to be.
• Attendance as engagement — treat absence as a signal to understand, not simply a rule to enforce.
• Whole Child approach — address academic, social-emotional, health, and basic-needs barriers together.
• Shared responsibility — schools, families, and communities all hold a piece of the solution.
• Continuous improvement — use data cycles (PDSA) to refine strategies rather than treating any plan as final.