Richardson | February 2026

Education

BY ISABELLA ZEFF

RISD short of fall attendance goal, introduces new strategies

Richardson ISD fell short of its attendance goal in fall 2025 and plans to implement new strategies to increase attendance this spring, according to a presentation at the Jan. 15 school board meeting. “We are not where we want to be with atten- dance,” Superintendent Tabitha Branum said. “We’ve made great gains, ... but we still have work to do.” Breaking it down Matthew Gibbins, assistant superintendent of administrative services, reviewed the fall semes- ter’s average daily attendance results in compari- son to RISD’s District Improvement Plan, which set the district-wide attendance goal at 96%. Average daily attendance is the percentage of students physically present each day, and it serves as the core measure of student presence. RISD’s average daily attendance for the 2025 fall semester was 94.69%, putting the district a little over 1 percentage point behind its goal, although Gibbins

said RISD is in line with the statewide average. Branum said the biggest opportunities for improvement are with the youngest and oldest students—pre-K and kindergarten students and high school juniors and seniors have the lowest attendance rates across the district. Going forward Gibbins introduced several new strategies aiming to increase attendance this spring: • Create attendance incentive programs using a portion of recaptured attendance funds • Identify specic reasons for chronic absentee- ism and implement personalized outreach to remove barriers • Utilize tiered system of supports to formalize individual attendance interventions • Oer parent information sessions at campuses with lowest attendance to provide information about the impact of attendance and strategies

“When our families value the presence in the classroom, you’re valuing their education.” MEGAN TIMME, RICHARDSON ISD BOARD MEMBER

for improvement Gibbins said RISD is already working to improve attendance by spreading awareness about the impact attendance has on both student success and district funding, as well as the importance of absence notes, which are required to excuse absences. Many schools have already introduced atten- dance incentive programs centered around compe- titions or rewards.

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