“Housing agencies are uniquely positioned to reach out and address the challenges families face getting their kids to school.”
– Hedy Chang, Attendance Works

In this Peer Exchange Learning Conversation, Learning Begins at Home: How Housing Agencies Can Support Attendance and Engagement in School, panelists representing three Campaign for Grade-Level Reading 2023 Honor Roll Communities — Sarasota Housing Authority, Florida; Fresno Housing, California; and the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA) — joined in a discussion moderated by Hedy Chang of Attendance Works. Panelists shared their perspectives and strategies for engaging children and families in education, with special attention paid to reducing chronic absence. In the above statement, Chang named the unique opportunity housing organizations have to make a difference for children and families as she shared data on recent increases in chronic absenteeism and outlined strategies for promoting regular attendance. 

While describing Fresno Housing’s year-round investment in educational outcomes, Mary Helen Caggianelli stated that “as a housing agency, we have a vested interest in the success of our families, and we have the ability to enhance learning experiences….We are positioned in a way to collaborate with community organizations and school districts that can lead to improved coordination of services for youth.”

William Russell of the Sarasota Housing Authority discussed the long-term partnership cultivated with the local school district. “Our kids are their kids, and it benefits all of us — the entire community, really — to work together, to leverage one another and to help get kids into the classroom.” The ongoing data-sharing agreement they have negotiated together allows for student-level data to be considered jointly for modifications and for celebrations.

Noting the many barriers to attendance families face, such as safety, transportation, and health, HACLA’s Jennifer Thomas discussed the critical nature of broad partnerships and investments, highlighting digital access and connectivity as essential to move children and families forward. Acknowledging the importance of institutional partners, she highly recommends agencies “recruit digital ambassadors” from their youth population and coordinate with residents themselves in doing the work to catalyze progress.

All three panelists’ housing organizations committed to future investments of funding and energy into education partnerships in a variety of ways, including through providing recent grants (Fresno), developing long-term strategic plans (HACLA), and using data to influence planning and action on a regular basis (Sarasota).

The panelists discussed:

• the importance of examining chronic absence data and using it to inform policy and practice;
• how and why the represented housing authorities began to engage with local school districts around attendance, family engagement and digital equity;
• their most effective strategies for advancing attendance and engagement, including utilizing data-sharing agreements and partnering with residents themselves;
• the impact of the pandemic on those strategies and ways to address those impacts; 
• digital equity and connectivity as essential elements; and
• their tips on how to begin the work.

In describing the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading’s position on housing as a platform for education, Ralph Smith, CGLR’s managing director, asserted that “the leaders and staff of public housing communities around the country have learned quite a bit by working and walking with the families they serve. Their everyday close-up engagement with those families has provided them valuable experiences, insights and perspectives, and they need to be at the table, in the conference room and many times at the forefront of the solution-finding process. And that is why CGLR listens to public housing leaders.”