Roosevelt School District No. 66 presented an update on Superintendent Guardrail 2 to the Governing Board on September 1. The guardrail ensures the district considers student climate survey results while supporting students’ academic, social, emotional and physical well-being.
The update focused on three priorities: improving attendance, expanding participation in after-school activities and strengthening students’ sense of belonging and safety.
Improving Student Attendance
The district’s first goal is to improve student attendance by four percentage points from the 2025–2026 baseline by September 2027.
Student survey results show that 73.8% of students currently recognize the importance of attending school every day. Roosevelt’s goal is to increase that percentage to 76.8%.
Regular attendance is closely connected to academic success. Roosevelt’s data show that students with higher attendance rates consistently perform better on state assessments. In 2026, 26.7% of students with attendance rates of 95% or higher were proficient or highly proficient in English Language Arts, compared with 14.3% of students whose attendance was below 85%.
A similar pattern appeared in mathematics. Among students attending at least 95% of the time, 19.7% were proficient or highly proficient. For students with attendance below 85%, proficiency was 5.6%.
According to information presented from the Arizona Chronic Absenteeism Guide, even small improvements in attendance can positively affect learning. A study conducted by Read On Arizona and Arizona State University found that a 1% increase in school-level attendance was associated with a 1.5% increase in students passing Arizona’s third-grade English Language Arts assessment.
Understanding Attendance Challenges
Students may miss school for many reasons, including illness, transportation difficulties, housing or food insecurity, family responsibilities, anxiety and other personal circumstances. Absenteeism may also be connected to students feeling disconnected from school, struggling academically or believing occasional absences will not affect their learning.
Roosevelt is taking a supportive, problem-solving approach that seeks to understand and address the reason behind each student’s absences.
The district’s attendance improvement plan includes:
Regular attendance reminders and family outreach
Ongoing review of attendance data
Attendance awareness and student engagement activities
A student ambassador program
Evaluation of attendance barriers related to chronic illness
Tiered interventions and resources for students and families
A districtwide attendance team, including school administrators, teachers, nurses, social workers, family engagement staff, student services teams and district leaders, is working together to coordinate these efforts.
Expanding After-School Opportunities
The district’s second goal is to increase student participation in after-school programming by three percentage points from the 2025–2026 baseline by June 2027.
Survey results from 2025–2026 showed:
55% of students played on a sports team
23% participated in a leadership group, such as student council or peer leadership
26% participated in a youth group
18% participated in a community youth program, such as the YMCA or Boys & Girls Club
Roosevelt will continue expanding extracurricular activities, leadership opportunities and other programs that help students build relationships, develop new skills and feel connected to their school community.
Strengthening Belonging and School Climate
The third goal is to use student survey results to strengthen physical safety, emotional well-being and positive school climate. By September 2028, the district seeks to improve student perceptions related to belonging by five percentage points from the 2025–2026 baseline.
Current survey results identified four areas of focus:
Sense of belonging:
Reduce the percentage of students who feel left out from 52.4% to 47.4%.
Support for learning:
Increase the percentage of students who report having at least one caring adult at school from 83.7% to 86.7%.
Bullying prevention:
Reduce the percentage of students who believe bullying happens frequently at their school from 51.8% to 48.8%.
Social and life skills:
Increase the percentage of students who report being able to control their temper from 74.6% to 77.6%.
To make progress, Roosevelt will continue implementing teacher connection strategies, social-skills instruction, student wellness ambassador programs and Boys Town practices.
Bullying-prevention efforts will include the CharacterStrong curriculum, internet safety education, intervention protocols, anti-bullying lessons delivered by school social workers and partnerships with community organizations.
The district will also use Multi-Tiered Systems of Support strategies and individual or group-based social-skills development to strengthen students’ self-awareness, emotional regulation and ability to build healthy relationships.
By connecting attendance, engagement and school climate, Roosevelt is taking a holistic approach to student success. The work recognizes that students are more likely to attend regularly and succeed academically when they feel safe, supported, valued and connected to their school community.