Focus Group Questions

SCHOOL ATTENDANCE: DATA TO ACTION Parent Focus Group Protocol

The Children’s Initiative

PLEASE DO NOT USE OR SHARE WITHOUT THE PERMISSION OF THE CHILDREN’S INITIATIVE. Contact Paula Ingrum at [email protected] to obtain permission. Data to action, the Children’s Initiative 2009 2

FOCUS GROUP APPROACH

The goal of these focus groups was to seek parents’ opinions and experiences with getting children to attend school. Generally, the questions explored key reasons for absenteeism and ways the school might better support families. The school identified parents of children with low to moderate attendance records for participation, sending invitational letters and following-up with a series of confirmation phone calls as well as a reminder phone call for those agreeing to participate. Parents and students were informed that they would be helping the school to be more responsive, and would also earn a small reward for their time and the chance to win a larger prize. Parents were assured of their confidentiality and that the groups would be conducted by a neutral facilitator. Parents participated in either an English focus group or a Spanish focus group. Parents and their children enjoyed refreshments half an hour prior to the commencement of the work. A childcare provider watched the children as the hour and a half focus group convened. The time for the focus groups was determined by suggestions from school personnel, based on their experience of good turnouts for school meetings and events.

The focus groups took place in classrooms. The groups were facilitated by a neutral, non-school associated trained facilitator and minutes were scribed. The facilitator followed a protocol of nine questions. The focus group protocols assured parents confidentiality. At the end of the focus groups, participants received $5.00 gift certificates for participating, and through a raffle process, one participant won a larger prize, such as a bike, tickets to a theme park or a $50.00 gift certificate. The determination of a meaningful larger prize was assisted through feedback from school personnel, based on their knowledge of the school and community population. Data to action, the Children’s Initiative 2009 3

FOCUS GROUP INTRODUCTION (SCRIPT)

Hello everyone, and thank you for being here tonight. I know you are all very busy and we want you to know how much we appreciate your taking this time out of your lives to talk with us and help us better understand how we can improve school attendance.

Let me introduce myself; my name is ______. I am a ______and I will be facilitating our group tonight.

Tonight I will be asking for your opinions and experiences with getting children to attend school here at (school name). Your feedback will be very helpful in guiding attendance practices and policies throughout (district name) and making sure that they work well and make sense for families. I want to assure you that everything that is shared here tonight will be kept confidential as far as who said what. In other words, although your feedback will be used in general, your identity will be protected so that you can speak freely. For school districts that wish to know what parent feedback was, we will present a summary only, no specific comments.

To keep a record of your comments, we will be recording our group on this digital recorder and will also be taking some notes. Again, no one outside of (agency name) will see or hear the raw records.

What are we going to do with all the valuable information you provide? We are going to take what we learn here about what your needs, barriers, and experiences, examine district and community resources, and draw on national research showing what really works to improve attendance, and help each district in this study develop new and better ways to help students and families with attendance. Data to action, the Children’s Initiative 2009 4

FOCUS GROUP QUESTIONS

Introduction [See script] (reassure participants about the confidential nature of this process and plea for open and honest responses)]

To open our discussion, let’s start with a round of brief introductions.

[Go around the table]

1. Warm-up question: Why don’t we all pair up with another parent to start? To get us all in a common frame of reference, I would like you to recall the most recent time one of your children missed school. [Pause] Now, turn to your partner, and share your experience. Discuss any interesting or challenging factors surrounding your child’s absence from school. Look for similarities and differences.

[After discussion, go around the room and have parents share their stories. Look for themes such as sickness, medical appointments, peer relationships, or school assignments]

It’s always interesting how many different stories there are. [Explore the following questions]

2. What are the main reasons for missing school?

3. What barriers do families face that affect the attendance of their children?

4. What is the school community currently doing to promote attendance? What is effective with families and what is not?

5. What information, resources, or supports could the school provide that would be helpful to families in improving their children’s attendance?

Thank you for sharing your experiences and opinions. Now, I would like us to talk in more depth about home/school relationships.

6. Does the school engage families as partners in the education of their children? What shapes your opinion?

7. Does the school communicate effectively with families? As effective communication must be two-way, do families feel that people at the school seek their input and listen to their concerns? Please share examples?

8. Now, sometimes families need additional supports or referrals to help their children succeed. Do you view the school as a safe and helpful place to go for information and assistance? Data to action, the Children’s Initiative 2009 5

9. For the final question as we move to conclude this focus group, is there anything else you would like to add regarding our discussion?

Thank you for your participation and input. [add any other next steps]