The Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) is the State Education Agency for the District of Columbia charged with raising the quality of education for all DC residents. OSSE is focused on sustaining, accelerating, and deepening the progress being made for the District’s 90,000+ students. OSSE serves as the District’s liaison to the U.S. Department of Education and works closely with the District’s 470+ early childhood facilities, 250+ schools, 60+ local education agencies (including DCPS and charter organizations), and community-based organizations to provide critical programming and resources to our stakeholders.

The State Attendance Coordinator will lead the implementation of our strategic plan initiative for reducing chronic absenteeism in close partnership with teams across the agency. Specifically, this position will play an essential role in executing the agency’s theory of action to reduce chronic absenteeism in DC. The State Attendance Coordinator will report directly to the Director of the DC Re-Engagement Collaborative, within the Division of Health and Wellness.

Specific functions of the State Attendance Coordinator include:

• Develop, implement, and monitor District-wide student attendance policies and guidance (35%)
• Manage the annual update and oversight of OSSE’s attendance policy guidance, including OSSE’s Instructional Day and Distance Learning guidance and waivers.
• Provide LEAs up-to-date information/resources on laws, regulations, and guidance related to student attendance.
• Liaise with the Chief of Staff team around attendance-related bills, hearings, regulations, and guidance.
• Innovate and manage the distribution of OSSE’s annual truancy letters to parents/guardians.

Support local education agencies, District partners, families, and other key external stakeholders to implement policies and best practices to improve student attendance (35%)

• Convene and facilitate a chronic absenteeism community of practice (CoP) of schools designated for school improvement.
• In collaboration with OSSE divisions, provide implementation support, technical assistance, training, and resources to assist Local Educational Agencies (LEAs) and schools with strengthening attendance strategies. Assist LEAs and schools in topics including, but not limited to:
  • Promoting high quality student support team practices, to include representation by school health and school behavioral health providers.
  • Using attendance and other data sources effectively to make real-time data-informed intervention decisions.
  • Identifying and addressing factors that contribute to chronic absenteeism; and
  • Building and advancing a multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) framework to structure attendance-related interventions
• Provide statewide outreach on behalf of OSSE, including ongoing memberships and participation in statewide organizations such as the EveryDay Counts! (EDC) Task Force.

Coordinate across OSSE to continually evaluate, understand, and strengthen the impact of our supports to drive improvements in student attendance (30%)

• Convene OSSE’s internal Reducing Chronic Absenteeism (RCA) Working Group to strengthen the agency’s coordinated cross-division initiatives and advance OSSE’s theory of action. This includes but is not limited to coordination with the Division of Data, Assessments, and Research (DAR) to curate, develop and disseminate attendance data resources and materials, with the Division of Strategic Funding for School Quality (FSQ) to assess and improve OSSE’s truancy grants, and with OSSE’s Re-Engagement Center (REC) to help refine our coordinated approach to supporting students with high chronic absenteeism and at greatest risk of school disengagement.
• Actively engage in ongoing professional learning to maintain knowledge of relevant research, models of effective prevention and intervention programs, laws, and requirements related to attendance.

Key qualifications for the role include:

• At least 4 years of experience with project and cross-team management.
• Knowledge of the principles and practices involved in the implementation of a state programs to improve the quality of programming and services of schools and local education agencies, including the ability to use program data to formulate and implement strategies and polices to improve student outcomes.
• Demonstrated experience working within and across education, health, and social service agencies or programs.
• Demonstrated experience coordinating and facilitating group interactions, meetings, and or training.
• Excellent problem-solving, planning, project management and strategic thinking skills.
• Strong interpersonal, verbal and written communication skills.
• A bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university in the education, political science, public health, psychology, social work or related field.

Our ideal candidate will also have:

• Experience working on attendance issues with schools, education agencies, or community-based organizations.
• Interest and excitement to work across multi-functional teams to develop a coherent and aligned vision and action plan for a pressing District issue.
• Master’s degree in education, public administration, public health or related field strongly preferred.

Licensures, Certifications and other requirements
None

Working Conditions/Environment
Work is normally performed in an office environment. Occasionally, the incumbent may be required to visit various locations within the District of Columbia.

Other Significant Facts
This is an Education Service (ES), "At-Will" Appointment.

This position has no promotion potential.

This position is not covered under a collecting bargaining agreement.

In accordance with Chapter 4 of the D.C. personnel regulations, Suitability, this position has been designated as security-sensitive. Accordingly, you must successfully pass a criminal background check and/or driving record check.

Applicants claiming “Residency Preference” will be required to maintain residency in the District of Columbia for a minimum of seven (7) years. Failure to do so may result in forfeiture of employment.

EEO Statement
The District of Columbia Government is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified candidates will receive consideration without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, marital status, personal appearance, sexual orientation, family responsibilities, matriculation, physical handicap, or political affiliation.

Application Process: This position is posted on the DC government’s Department of Human Resources (DCHR) website. Interested applicants are encouraged to follow the steps below to apply for the position:

• Click on the following link: www.dchr.dc.gov/external-link/careers-dc
• In the Search Jobs section, enter 28609
• Click on the job requisition entitled OSSE: State Attendance Coordinator