Derrick Lawson, the principal of Indio High School in Indio, Calif., has a unique approach to the first week of school. He treats it like the first episode of a Netflix show he wants his students to binge-watch.
“The minute they step in through the door, I want to hook them so that they come back for more,” Lawson said.
On the first day back, teachers take it slow, don’t rush to introduce the syllabus, and play games that can help students to get to know their teachers and each other. A popular one at Indio High is a classroom version of beach volleyball. Each colored section of the ball features questions—like “pet’s name” or “what movie would you like to act in?”—and students answer according to the section of the ball facing them when they catch it. Lawson said the games are an engaging way to break the ice, especially with students who are shy and feeling anxious about starting school.
School leaders have their work cut out as schools reopen this fall. As always, they must plan effective professional development for their teachers, review safety protocols, and finetune schedules. In the post-pandemic era, though, they have the additional responsibility to keep students engaged and excited enough to show up to school.
This means dealing head-on with student anxiety, which has become a contributing factor to students missing more school.
Student anxiety takes different shapes across grades. In high school, Lawson has noticed that students’ initial euphoria about connecting with friends after school building closures has waned. It’s been replaced by anxiety about fitting in.
“We see these problems arise because of social media. Online, [kids can] use filters. But when they have to see each other in person, it exacerbates their anxiety,” Lawson said.
In middle school, both students and parents often feel anxious about the switch from elementary school.
“Parents worry about their kids getting lost. Students worry about operating their lockers,” said Ashley Bowling, the principal of Florence Middle School in Florence, Ala.
New students are also afraid to stick out. “We only have two grades in our school,” Bowling said. “Half our population every year is new. I have to convince them that it’s OK to be the new kid.”
Both Lawson and Bowling are intentional about addressing issues like student anxiety, apathy about learning, and a feeling of disconnectedness to the school community early in the school year.
The school leaders are trying to reduce their rates of chronic absenteeism—broadly defined as missing 10 percent or more of the total school days for excused and unexcused reasons—which has increased across the country. At Indio High, 38 percent of the student population of 2,090 was chronically absent in the 2023-24 school year. For Bowling’s school in Alabama, with over 600 students, the rate stood at 16 percent.
“In middle school, you start seeing this apathy [toward school]. When the apathy is paired with poor attendance, students’ grades decline,” said Bowling, laying out a cyclical connection between chronic absenteeism and low grades. The decline in grades further discourages students from showing up to school.
“Then you’re fighting two battles at one time,” Bowling said.
Working on making students feel connected to school
To tackle the related issues of apathy and absenteeism, the two principals try to create spaces and provide opportunities that involve all kinds of students.
At Indio High, the first week back is a “club rush” for students to sign up to different extracurricular activities, get to know older members, and the teacher mentors of these clubs. That Friday, there’s a pep rally. The school also hosts movie nights and service projects like planting trees to keep students engaged in their first week.
Lawson has also made more structural interventions. He’s created a student senate to give him feedback and recommend changes to school policies. Lawson tries to recruit a diverse group of students for the senate and is especially focused on those who seem disengaged.
“I ask them what can make them feel more connected. Having that opportunity makes students feel heard and valued. It’s also crucial for them to see their views reflected in their peers,” Lawson said.
It’s also an investment in creating new student leaders, who can engage their peers more than the administration can, he added.
There is some indication that his efforts have borne fruit. The sign-ups for club rush week increased from 400 to 1,200 students this year.
Bowling started her back-to-school introductions in July, a few weeks before school starts. She hosted an all-day camp for students coming into 7th grade, where they got to tour the school, meet with teachers, and get accustomed to their new schedule. The camp day ended with a parent meeting to get them acquainted with the school and go over details like navigating a student’s Chromebook at home.
Bowling has also set up an attendance task force to tackle absenteeism more directly.
“We think parents and guardians may not know what it means to be chronically absent, so we’re approaching this educationally. We’ve created graphics that can help them understand what happens beyond a certain number of absences,” she added.
Bowling held one session on the meaning of chronic absenteeism for parents during the camp but plans to talk about it again at orientation and feature it in newsletters throughout the school year. Plus, the task force will keep a close eye on which students are missing a lot of school and reach out to their families to address the problem.
Meeting all of students’ needs
One key strategy to foster more connectedness, the principals said, is to recognize that students have a wide variety of needs.
This school year, Bowling will pilot an hour-long homeroom period, which is aimed at giving students extra academic support or time to work on their social-emotional skills. The interventions will be based on students’ academic and behavioral data, and in the homeroom period, teachers will monitor how much progress their students are making on their individualized improvement plans.
The homeroom period will also help introduce students to different kinds of clubs, like a technology or cornhole club, beyond the regular ones like Future Business Leaders of America. The idea, said Bowling, is to show that every kind of student has a space in the school.
Bowling also wants to use this period to get feedback from students on what needs to be improved in the school’s culture. She’s dubbed it the principal’s advisory group, akin to the student senate that Lawson has created.
April Knight, the principal of Avondale Elementary School in Columbus, Ohio, said taking care of students’ more material needs, like providing backpacks, food supplies to take home, and meals in schools, can also reduce the barrier to attendance. Knight’s school is in a high-poverty area, and families need the school’s support, she said.
At the start of every school year, Knight hosts ice cream socials aimed at getting new families acquainted with the school.
And students with perfect attendance for a week get to be “principal for the day.” They get a special name badge, a walkie talkie, and do classroom observations like principals. They also get to make one special decision, like giving everyone a longer recess.
“It’s hilarious what kids think their principals do all day. But they’re exhausted by the end of it,” Knight said.
Principals want to work on their own leadership
Changing school culture and closing attendance gaps are tricky problems, and get more complicated every year. In addition to helping students, principals also need to develop their leadership skills to navigate through these challenges.
Knight said she wants to give better feedback to her teachers on their instructional strategies, like deliberative practice. “Students should be able to apply what they’ve learned,” she said.
For Bowling, too, clear and effective feedback is the goal: “I have to learn that feedback comes from a good place and be more comfortable giving it because it adds value to our school.”
Bowling, who’s heading into her second year as principal, also learned to value her team and rely on them when she was going through a personal crisis in her first year as a school leader.
“At my lowest point, the school still ran, we still had quality education for the kids,” she said. “It was 100 percent because of the team that surrounded me.”
