By Nicole Travers
Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships
Good morning, Chairman Mendelson and members of the Committee. My name is Nicole Travers, and I serve as Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships at the DC Charter School Alliance, a local nonprofit that advocates for public charter schools to ensure every student has access to high-quality public education that prepares them for lifelong success.
As a former school leader with nearly two decades of experience serving students and families in Ward 7, I bring both a school-level and citywide perspective to this conversation. In addition to my role at the Alliance, I serve as Co-Chair of the Coordinating Council for School Behavioral Health and Co-Chair of the Every Day Counts! Collaboration and Communication Working Group.
Across these roles, one belief remains central to my work: we cannot solve the challenges facing students and families in isolation. Progress requires community, collaboration, and shared accountability.
Progress Through Community and Collaboration
Thank you for the opportunity to testify on the critical issue of chronic absenteeism and truancy in our schools. Today, I will focus on the partnerships necessary to combat chronic absenteeism and truancy.
As we consider the District's progress, we must recognize the broader national landscape and the particular challenges facing urban school systems. According to Frontline Education's 2025 K–12 Lens survey, chronic absenteeism averaged 17% across surveyed school districts, compared with approximately 30% in large urban districts. This disparity underscores the heightened attendance challenges facing urban communities and the importance of coordinated, community-driven solutions. Within this broader context, we are encouraged by the progress being made across the District.
In SY 2025–26, chronic absenteeism in the public charter sector declined from 39.9% to 37.1%, keeping the sector’s chronic absenteeism rate below the city average for the second year in a row. Additionally, public charter schools continued to reduce chronic truancy, declining from 33.2% to 31.9%. Nearly 20 charter LEAs also maintained in-seat attendance rates above 93%.
These improvements reflect the collective efforts of school leaders, educators, families, community organizations, and District partners. They also demonstrate what is possible when we create opportunities to share strategies, identify barriers, and mobilize resources.
For several years, I have advocated for a coordinated, citywide approach to attendance. This year, the DC Charter School Alliance took an important step by expanding its annual Attendance Summit into a districtwide convening in partnership with DCPS, the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education, and other District partners.
With support from the Washington Nationals, we brought together more than 250 attendance leaders and nearly 20 community organizations and agencies, including OSSE's Health and Wellness team, Johns Hopkins, Children's National Hospital, MPD, and WMATA. The convening strengthened relationships, connected schools with resources, and created opportunities to share promising practices across the District.
We have also seen the value of the EveryDay Labs partnership, connected through Abdul-Karim Ewing-Boyd, Director of Strategic Initiatives for PK–12 at the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education. More than 40 charter schools have engaged with its digital notification and family outreach platform. As a valued partner, they have taken schools’ feedback and built customizable dashboards, which have helped schools identify attendance patterns and translate data into timely action.
Community-based and philanthropic partnerships are equally important. Digital Pioneers Academy’s $50 pilot explored barriers and motivations affecting students at risk of chronic absenteeism. Among participants, chronic absenteeism was 40%, compared with the school’s prior-year rate of 55%. All participants graduated on time, FAFSA completion increased from 43% to 98%, students’ sense of belonging rose from 68% to 88%, and 100% could identify a trusted adult at school. These results highlight the potential of targeted investments and community partnerships to strengthen attendance, engagement, and student outcomes.
When incentives are paired with meaningful engagement and support for students' basic needs, schools can better understand what helps students reconnect with learning.
We also recognize the Mayor's support for expanding the Department of Human Services' Truancy Pilot to schools in Wards 7 and 8. These efforts reinforce a central point: attendance is a shared citywide responsibility.
Schools are often the first to recognize when a student is struggling, but barriers to attendance frequently extend beyond the classroom. Transportation, housing instability, food insecurity, physical and behavioral health needs, and family circumstances all influence whether a student can consistently attend school. Addressing these challenges requires a connected network of schools, agencies, businesses, nonprofits, and community members.
Recommendations to Sustain Progress
The DC Charter School Alliance offers three recommendations to strengthen and accelerate this work:
First, establish a coordinated, cross-agency attendance strategy. We are encouraged by Mayor-elect Janese Lewis George's commitment to appoint an attendance czar to coordinate attendance resources and supports across the District. Existing efforts—including Every Day Counts!, OSSE's attendance dashboard, and the Partnerships for School Attendance grant program—provide important building blocks. Now is the opportunity to connect these efforts through a coordinated strategy with shared measures, clear accountability, and meaningful engagement with schools and community partners. We welcome the opportunity to serve as a thought partner in this work.
Second, create a Business and Community Attendance Compact. We encourage the District to establish a voluntary compact inviting local businesses, nonprofits, philanthropic organizations, and community institutions to invest in attendance solutions. Partnerships could support transportation, mentoring, basic needs, family engagement, and student incentives.
Neighboring states offer promising examples, such as Maryland, where chronic absenteeism declined from 30.9% in SY 2021–22 to 22.8% in SY 2025–26—an 8.1 percentage-point reduction. Maryland's statewide Maryland Shows Up campaign, attendance task force, and community partnerships demonstrate the value of a coordinated approach. The District should examine these strategies and identify opportunities to adapt them locally.
Attendance is an investment in our city's future, and our business and community partners should have meaningful opportunities to contribute.
Third, strengthen ward-level and community-based collaboration. We must continue building relationships among public and public charter schools, families, faith leaders, community-based organizations, and government agencies. Ward education councils, community collaboratives, and cross-sector working groups provide opportunities to identify neighborhood-specific barriers and coordinate solutions. These local efforts should inform and connect to a broader citywide strategy.
Overall, Attendance Is Everyone's Business
Sustaining progress requires continued collaboration and shared accountability. Attendance is everyone's business. It takes a community working together to ensure every child has the opportunity to be present, engaged, and successful.
Thank you for the opportunity to contribute to this important conversation and for your commitment to DC students and families. I welcome your questions.
