AllHere, a platform created to improve attendance and reduce chronic absenteeism, announced its nationwide launch at the Future of Education Technology Conference (FETC). AllHere is web-, mobile-, and tablet-accessible, and integrates with district rostering and attendance systems.
According to recent research, 1 in 6 students miss three weeks or more of school per year. The graduation rate for these students is 28.6%, compared to 70% for students who miss 10 or fewer days of school per year. In large districts, the financial costs can be enormous: LAUSD lost $20 million in one year due to chronic absenteeism. Chronic absence is an early indicator of greater challenges a student may face, such as drug and alcohol use, suspension, expulsion, dropping out, teen pregnancy, and crime.
The AllHere platform includes:
- Diagnostic tools that allow leaders to align interventions with the root cause of chronic absences
- Data analytics and reports that provide metrics for district goal-setting and progress-reporting
- A library of intervention strategies to determine the services to best support the needs of each student
- Access to professional learning that offers best practice training and ongoing support
Joanna Smith, Founder and CEO of AllHere, is one of a very small class of black women leading VC-funded tech firms in the U.S. today. After earning her bachelor's degree from Harvard, Smith worked as a middle school math teacher in Boston, where she faced so much chronic absenteeism that she was unable to be an effective teacher. After serving as an attendance and family engagement coordinator, Smith built the company from a shoestring budget and a spreadsheet into a fast-growing, 15-person startup that has secured nearly $4 million in capital.
