East Cleveland City Schools has rebuilt its attendance work around individual students, and district figures cited by Signal Cleveland show chronic absenteeism falling by 10 percentage points between the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 school years.
The 1,140-student district spent years under state oversight for low academic performance before adopting the approach as part of a turnaround plan. Staff at each building now meet weekly to review color-coded attendance spreadsheets, talk through individual cases and search for ways to raise each student's time in class. Teams also visit homes when emails, letters and phone calls do not reach families.
State-appointed Superintendent Henry Pettiegrew II told the outlet that attendance needed an owner, and he gave that role to Terrence Roscoe, previously a ninth grade principal at Shaw High School. Roscoe handles attendance, open enrollment and athletics districtwide, and manages incentives including bus tickets paid for from a budget line Pettiegrew set aside.
Resource rooms opened for students: Kirkmart at Kirk Middle School and a comparable space at Shaw, stocked with clothing, shoes and hygiene items. Social workers Erin Drakeley and Lakeisha Greer described the rooms and other additions as making their schools more welcoming.
Results extended to academics, according to the outlet. The district drew a three-star state rating for the first time, was released from state academic oversight, then repeated the three-star rating while posting double-digit gains in third grade reading proficiency.
Shaw is also piloting a new parent check-in process intended to feel less intimidating, part of an effort to work with families as partners. State education officials, meanwhile, launched a statewide attendance dashboard and are pushing districts toward early intervention.