CDE Field Trips - 2/5/25: Warm Welcome at Bill Reed Middle School

 

Daily warm welcomes are a strategy Thompson School District has embraced to reduce chronic absenteeism. As students arrive, educators are posted at the top of the stairs and outside their classrooms, giving high fives, fist bumps, and “Happy Fridays.” The goal is to make sure that each student is greeted. 

“But more than that, [it’s] a recognition that they're here, that they're a human, that we see them and that they're known. And that they're a part of this school community,” said Bill Reed Middle School Principal John Kleiber.

Bill Reed Principal John Kleiber emphasized that warm welcomes are one of many strategies the school is employing to reduce chronic absenteeism, which has led to a gradual reduction in chronic absenteeism from a pandemic-era high of 40% to 30%. 

Thompson School District is one of many across the state that have joined CDE’s Every School Day Matters! Attendance Campaign, committing to the goal of reducing chronic absenteeism by 50%.