The New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) released guidance on student attendance for district and school leaders that defines chronic absenteeism and suggests strategies to reduce K–12 absenteeism. However, the issues leading to absenteeism and strategies to reduce it are likely to be different for children in pre-kindergarten and kindergarten than for older students.

This toolkit is a companion resource to the state’s existing K–12 guidance. NJDOE and the U.S. Department of Education’s Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Mid-Atlantic have partnered to create this toolkit with specific resources and handouts to support school districts, schools, and early childhood education providers in improving school attendance in pre-kindergarten and kindergarten.

The goals of these materials are to:

• Help educators and families understand the importance of attendance in the early grades.
• Encourage schools to gather and include data on preschool students when reporting chronic absenteeism rates on school report cards.
• Help schools collect information from families to help identify reasons for absenteeism in the early grades.
• Provide guidance on selecting and implementing research-based strategies to improve attendance in pre-kindergarten and kindergarten, based on the identified challenges.

• Teacher Certification
• Core Knowledge and Competencies for NJ Early Childhood Educators
• Workgroup on Teacher Evaluation Evidence: Teacher Evaluation Support Document: PreK & K
• The Role of the Preschool Instructional Coach

• DOE Event Registration
• Professional Development in New Jersey
• Early Learning Networked Improvement Community (ELNIC)

• National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth
• National Association for the Education of Young Children
• NJ Association for the Education of Young Children
• National Association of Bilingual Educators
• Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages
• NJ Education Association
• National Institute for Early Education Research
• Advocates for Children of New Jersey
• National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators

• NJ Parent Link
• Grow NJ Kids
• Center for Research and Evaluation on Education and Human Services (CREEHS) at Montclair State University

• Differentiated Mathematics Centers in P-3 PDF (Part 1
• Differentiated Mathematics Centers in P-3 Video (Part 1)
• Flexible Small Group Instruction in Early Learning Mathematics PDF
• Flexible Small Group Instruction in Early Mathematics Video
• Problem Solving in K-3 Mathematics PDF
• Problem Solving in K-3 Mathematics Video
• Differentiated Mathematics Centers in P-3 PDF (Part 2)
• Differentiated Mathematics Centers in P-3 Video (Part 2)
• Early Mathematics Assessment Practices in P-3 PPT
• Early Mathematics Assessment Practices in P-3 Video