Response to Intervention: Attendance Support

Michigan law has become more and more stringent in regards to student attendance. Starting with this year's current freshmen, all students are required to attend school until they are 18 years old. In addition, parents are held criminally responsible for truant students.

I developed the following forms to follow the requirements of our state's attendance policy and to document the interventions and supports I utilize to assist the student.

See below for download and contact sheet.

I would say about 75% of the attendance issues I handle are eliminated with a phone call to the parents. I use that first phone call to reach out to the family. They may be dealing with a tragic life event or their child may be experiencing school anxiety (bullying, friendship issues, etc). This first phone call allows me to notify the parents that their child's attendance is being monitored, inform them about state requirements, and identify any roadblocks the child or their families may be experiencing.

I hope you find them helpful!

(The frame isn't showing up completely in the preview but it is a complete in the download.)

Response to Intervention - Counseling Child Study Form

Organizing a school counseling program is not an easy task. Providing services to students, parents, teachers, and administrators can leave one contemplating the benefits of human cloning ;) .

Child Study Meetings provide me with an effective way to collaboratively work with teachers and other staff members. During the meetings, my role is as the counselor is to help define the concern, identify interventions (both past and future), and help create a plan of action for the student.

Let's be frank (no offense to anyone named Frank), Child Study Meetings can be a tidal wave of information. This is especially true if your building is in full RTI and PBS swing. Covering three buildings does not leave a lot of extra time for paper work and administrative type tasks, so I need to keep it as manageable as possible.

 For me, I like to be comprehensive so that I can develop a clear understanding of the concern being brought to me for support. However, the process needs to be simple enough for me to not get lost in unnecessary steps.

In an effort to give back to the school counseling community: I am sharing the form I created that has helped me immensely. I included a jpeg image so I can pin it on Pintrest. If you would like, you can download the form by clicking the link below.

Child Study Form