When Shane McKay talks about attendance, he doesn’t start with funding.
He starts with students.
“As humans we are designed to be social creatures,” says McKay, Assistant Superintendent for East Central Independent School District (ECISD). “School provides a safe environment for kids to build relationships, learn social connections, discover their identity, collaborate, learn from one another, develop life long friendships, and grow academically, emotionally, and socially.”
For many districts across the country, chronic absenteeism remains one of the most persistent challenges emerging from the pandemic. Families became accustomed to remote learning. School attendance became less routine, or worse, even considered optional. Communication channels became crowded with automated messages, emails, and phone calls that often went unanswered.
ECISD was no exception.
Serving nearly 12,000 students in southeast San Antonio, Texas, the district found itself facing a challenge familiar to educators across the country: students needed to be in school to learn, but schools were increasingly struggling to connect with families in meaningful ways.
“We were over-relying on phone calls, emails, and one-way communication. It became white noise for families. Oftentimes these communication platforms were ignored by the recipients.”
Parents weren’t answering calls. Letters were being returned because contact information had changed. Automated attendance notifications were often ignored. At the same time, the district’s multilingual population was growing, making communication even more complex.
The challenge wasn’t simply notifying families when students were absent. It was building a communication system families would actually engage with.
More importantly, the district needed a way to move beyond one-way communication. Families weren’t just missing messages—they often had no practical way to respond.
With TalkingPoints Foundations, ECISD established a districtwide channel for two-way communication. Teachers and administrators could send messages in families’ preferred languages and receive quick responses back, creating opportunities for conversation rather than simply notification.
Rebuilding Connections with Families
As ECISD searched for ways to improve attendance, district leaders realized communication needed to become more personal, immediate, and actionable.
That shift changed how schools communicated with families. Instead of relying on one-way notifications, schools could communicate with families through two-way text messages translated into families’ preferred languages. Teachers and administrators could reach parents directly and receive responses in real time.
The difference became especially important during the school day.
ECISD developed attendance procedures that allowed teachers and administrators to notify families quickly when students were marked absent during the district’s Average Daily Attendance (ADA) window.
The results were often immediate.
“What do you mean he’s absent?” McKay recalls hearing from parents who received the messages from the high school. “I dropped him off at school today.”
Those conversations frequently led to quick interventions—parents calling students, correcting attendance records, providing documentation, or helping resolve issues before an absence became part of a larger pattern.
Just as important, those conversations gave schools visibility into what was actually happening. Instead of assuming why a student was absent, staff could hear directly from families, identify barriers, correct misunderstandings, and work together on solutions.
For working families, the communication method itself mattered.
“A working parent may not be able to answer a phone call,” McKay says. “But they can often look at a text message and respond much more quickly.”
What began as a communication improvement soon became something larger. It became an attendance strategy.
By making it easier for schools and families to connect, respond, and problem-solve together, ECISD was able to intervene earlier, address attendance concerns more quickly, and strengthen the relationships that keep students engaged in school.
Attendance improved not because the district sent more messages, but because families became more connected to what was happening with their children each day.
The Power of 32,000 Days
Over a two-year period, ECISD increased district attendance from 91.55% to 93.1%, resulting in nearly 32,000 additional instructional days for students. The improvement also generated an estimated $1.25 million in annual operating revenue through Texas’ attendance-based funding model—resources that can be reinvested in student learning and support.
The impact extends far beyond a percentage point.
But McKay is quick to emphasize that the most important benefits aren’t financial.
“It’s more than just the money,” he says. “It’s really about helping students learn and grow through all aspects. When kids come to school they learn to find their voice, how to be a part of a team and collaborate, build social connections, conflict resolution, how to solve real-world challenges, think critically, write compellingly, and speak logically. They learn to emotionally regulate, relate to others with different cultures, and build self-confidence.”
The district’s analysis estimates that the average student gained approximately 2.6 additional days of instruction each year.
ECISD estimates the average student gained ~2.6 additional days of instruction
For McKay, those days represent something many attendance reports overlook: confidence.
When students miss school, they often return feeling behind academically and socially. As absences accumulate, catching up becomes increasingly difficult.
“I think about it like quicksand,” McKay says. “The deeper the hole gets, the harder it becomes to get out.”
Regular attendance helps prevent that cycle. Students remain connected to classroom learning, peer relationships, and the routines that support both academic and social-emotional development.
In other words, attendance is not simply about seat time. It’s about belonging.
Attendance Is a Community Issue
While ECISD’s attendance gains are significant, McKay believes the broader implications may be even more important.
Many people think of attendance as a school problem. McKay sees it differently.
“Strong public schools are the foundation of our democracy. Public schools are a pathway to the American dream.” McKay says.
For ECISD, attendance represents the beginning of a much larger journey.
Students who attend regularly are more likely to stay on track academically. Students who stay on track are more likely to graduate. Graduates are more likely to earn industry credentials, pursue higher education, secure employment, and contribute to their communities.
The result is a stronger local economy and a stronger community.
“When a child matriculates through our system we want to make sure they are academically prepared and they’re employable. They’re contributing to the labor market. They’re purchasing goods. They’re contributing to the tax base. They’re adding value back to the community.”
In San Antonio, where workforce development and economic diversification are ongoing priorities, those connections matter.
Today’s student is tomorrow’s nurse, HVAC technician, electrician, small business owner, or community leader.
That reality shapes how ECISD thinks about attendance. The goal is not simply improving a metric.
The goal is helping more students access opportunities that can benefit them, their families, and the region for decades to come.
Building a Foundation for the Future
ECISD’s work is far from finished.
The district continues to focus heavily on reducing chronic absenteeism and strengthening engagement with families. That work continues to evolve. While many of ECISD’s attendance gains were built through TalkingPoints Foundations and the stronger family communication it enabled, the district also began piloting TalkingPoints Attendance Improvement during the 2025-26 school year.
TalkingPoints Attendance Improvement builds on the communication foundation the district had already established with families. By supporting more targeted and timely attendance outreach, the pilot is helping schools engage families earlier when attendance concerns emerge.
According to McKay, participating campuses continued to see attendance improvements, reinforcing the district’s belief that meaningful family engagement remains one of the most effective tools available for improving attendance.
Attendance remains a strategic priority across the organization because leaders understand what is at stake.
The district’s experience offers an important lesson for schools nationwide. Attendance improvements don’t begin with accountability systems or funding formulas. They begin with relationships.
By creating easier, more responsive ways for schools and families to communicate, ECISD is helping ensure that more students show up, stay connected, and remain on a path toward long-term success.
And in doing so, the district is pursuing something larger than attendance.
It is investing in the future of its community.
To learn more about TalkingPoints Family Engagement Foundations and Attendance Improvement solutions, request a demo here.
