I have created a sample sheet containing the names of some employees. If you create an attendance sheet for your school, you can replace the Employees’ Names field with the Students’ Names field.

Tom Bensky was frustrated. The physics professor at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, had tried every way he could think of to take attendance efficiently in his large classes.

What the research says: Multiple researchers have linked regular communication with parents—through text messages, postcards, and even billboards—to improved student attendance.