New marketing campaign aims to improve student attendance

The message: Show up.

In response to an increase in absenteeism among students in the Sioux Falls School District, the district partnered with marketing company Click Rain Inc. to give summer interns an assignment of their own: Help create a campaign to address the challenge.

The resulting work launches this month and will focus on how absenteeism is an issue for the entire community.

“Chronic absenteeism comes with a cost both now and in the future. When a student doesn’t come to school, they miss out on not only academic content but also on learning how to build a routine and to be resilient. Once students fall behind, it is that much harder to catch up,” said James Nold, assistant superintendent.

Chronic absenteeism is defined as missing 10 percent or more of school days. In the 2018-19 school year, 14 percent of South Dakota students were chronically absent. That jumped to 21 percent in the 2022-23 school year.

The Sioux Falls School District has taken many steps to address school attendance issues, including adding attendance liaison positions at six schools in 2023. Adding a relationship with Click Rain was meant to bolster the effort, the district said.

“When the school district called, we were excited about the opportunity to help with such an important project. At the same time, we were planning for our company’s summer internship programs and felt this would be a great chance to tap into the young minds and great talents of our interns,” said James Krueger, Click Rain Inc. partner.

Over the course of the summer, four interns from both Click Rain and Lemonly met with representatives from the Sioux Falls School District to understand the assignment and make marketing recommendations. The result of their work together is a multimedia campaign with the message “Show Up” that launched Aug. 22.