Katy ISD reports attendance incentive program added about 700 students to daily attendance, district to add maintenance rewards
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Summary
Katy ISD presented results from its Attend Today, Achieve Tomorrow incentives: a multi-year program that the district says raised average daily attendance and distributed campus-level incentive funds. Administrators propose a new maintenance tier to reward campuses that sustain high attendance.
Katy ISD administrators on July 28 presented a progress report on the district's Attend Today, Achieve Tomorrow student attendance incentive program, saying the initiative contributed to measurable improvements in average daily attendance (ADA) and that the district will refine incentives to reward campuses that maintain already-high attendance.
Assistant Superintendent Jamie Hines and Dr. Emily Craig described the program's mechanics: each campus receives an ADA improvement plan at the start of the year showing historical ADA, a campus goal and an incentive schedule. Campuses update a six-week scorecard with current ADA performance; end-of-semester and end-of-year results determine a financial incentive that is placed in the campus's following-year budget (available Sept. 1) so principals can plan how to spend the money.
District staff reported combined gains of roughly 0.8 percentage points in ADA over the past two years (about 0.6 percentage point in one year and 0.2 percentage point this year), which the presenters said translates to more than 700 additional students in classrooms on an average day. Hines said the program has distributed incentive funds to campuses over the last two years and that the district plans to refine the plan to include a "maintenance" component so campuses already above the district average can receive rewards for maintaining high attendance.
Operational supports include daily and historical attendance dashboards built by the Business Intelligence team and tools for counselors to track chronic absenteeism at the individual-student level. The district said campuses can use incentives for campus-level, grade-level or classroom-level recognition and programs to encourage attendance.
Trustees praised the program and suggested sharing positive campus examples publicly to increase buy-in. Trustee Dawn Champagne asked the district to highlight light-hearted campus incentives such as celebratory events so other campuses can replicate successful ideas.
Administrators will finalize the maintenance-tier details and provide campus guidance before the first reporting period of the new school year.