Using the MD-MTSS
While school avoidance and attendance are not the same concept, it is important to consider one in the context of the other, as this is how school avoidance is currently being identified. Over the last few years, Tusla’s Educational Support Services (TESS) has begun promoting a Multi-Dimensional Multi-Tiered System of Support (MD-MTSS) model (Kearney and Graczyk, 2020) to address school attendance and absenteeism. An important next step is understanding how to implement such a framework in schools. TESS have developed a series of webinars to educate schools on the MD-MTSS model. More information and a link to view is available under Additional Resources below.
Some schools have created the role of an Attendance Officer responsible for effectively implementing the school’s Attendance and Punctuality Policy. They are also responsible for making the appropriate attendance returns to TESS. School management will support them in this work. Other schools might have attendance duties attached to an existing AP1/AP2 post. Regardless of the post holder, many of the duties remain the same. With regard to responding to school avoidance through the MD-MTSS Model, the following points are useful for consideration.
- Ensure the creation of a benchmark for how often absence reports will be generated and checked (e.g. weekly/monthly)
- Consider how often punctuality or lateness will be checked
- Ensure partial absences are checked
- Ensure both explained and unexplained absences are gauged.
Adapted with permission from Kearney and Graczyk’s Research on the MD-MTSS Model (2020).
The MD-MTSS model identifies three tiers of school attendance:
- Tier 1 – Absent 5% or less (satisfactory attendance)
- Tier 2 – Absent >5% but <10% (at risk for chronic absenteeism)
- Tier 3 – Absent >10% (chronic absenteeism)
More information on the MD-MTSS model is available through the link below.
Additional Resources
TESS 2023-2024 Attendance Campaign
TESS 2023-2024 Attendance campaign aims to highlight the importance of school attendance with regard to achieving positive educational outcomes for children and young people. The website hosts a variety of resources for schools wanting further support on implementing attendance drives in their school. There are several webinars available for schools on the MD-MTSS Model available through the link below.
Attendance Strategies
Guidance on devising your school’s Attendance Strategy can be found here. If your school is involved in the Nova programme and requires some information on this for inclusion in your school’s Attendance Strategy or Statement of Strategy, please get in touch with the Nova Coordinator or through the Feedback link in our Toolkit.
Attendance Tracking Systems
Your school’s attendance monitoring system can be set up to correspond with the tiers outlined above. Guidance on how to do this is included here.