Cohort 1 📍 Region 7

Across 15 schools, Washington County centered its Community Schools work on attendance to drive improvements in student engagement and family involvement. The division built a visible attendance culture through branded campaigns at every building, from “Step into September” shoe drawings to “Bases Loaded” classroom competitions to “World Changer of the Week” recognition. The approach is already showing results: six schools exceeded their 94% attendance target in the first quarter, and the division averaged 95% across all 15 schools.

That attendance culture is reinforced through student-led service projects, peer leadership programs, multigenerational family events, and programming for multilingual families that bring students, families, and community partners together in every building. When Hurricane Helene hit, Damascus Middle became a community hub for families during and after the storm, providing a proof point for the very connections the division had been building every day in every school.