Abstract
The Behavioral Interventions to Advance Self-Sufficiency-Next Generation (BIAS-NG) project is supported by the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation in the Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. BIAS-NG aims to make human services programs work better for the people receiving services by reshaping program processes using lessons from behavioral science, an interdisciplinary field that incorporates psychology, economics, and other social sciences to provide insight into how people process information, make decisions, and take action. BIAS-NG partners with state and local agencies to identify a challenge to address, investigate its possible causes, design an intervention informed by behavioral science to address the causes, and test the efficacy and cost efficiency of the intervention relative to status-quo service delivery. For this study, BIAS-NG worked with two Early Head Start/ Head Start programs in Wayne County, Michigan, to use behavioral insights to design and test a proactive messaging strategy intended to improve daily child attendance.
Based on conversations with program staff and participating families and analyses of program administrative data, the BIAS-NG research team focused efforts on understanding challenges to consistent daily child attendance. The BIAS-NG team found that the vast majority of children in both programs were chronically absent—defined as missing 10% or more of school days—across three academic years. In the 2022-23 school year, average daily attendance was 76% in one program and was 65% in the other. Low attendances rates mean that Head Start participants may miss out on important opportunities and resources that can impact child and family outcomes. Beyond absences likely resulting in missed learning opportunities for children, absences also create administrative burden and instructional challenges for program staff.
The research team conducted interviews with program staff and participating families to identify potentially malleable behavioral barriers to consistent attendance, rather than focusing on tough to move structural barriers (e.g., transportation) or unavoidable causes of absences (e.g., illness). Identified behavioral barriers included families not receiving the right proactive information for attendance at the right time given programs’ focus on reactive attendance communications (once a child misses a substantial proportion of school) as opposed to proactive ones. Diagnosis activities also suggested that many families felt a limited sense of connection to program staff and other families in the program. Stronger bonds with staff and between families might encourage families to come to school to see people they have connections with and may also increase access to school (e.g., transportation vouchers) and non-school (e.g., a carpool) resources to support attendance.
In response to these behavioral barriers, the research team developed an intervention involving sending families positive, proactive messages via text and email aimed at improving child attendance. The messages are described further in the Intervention section. The positive, proactive attendance messaging intervention is intended to promote more consistent daily attendance by (a) underscoring the importance of attendance for child development, (b) helping families feel more connected to the program, and (c) highlighting supports available to help families get to the program. The messages are hypothesized to positively impact child attendance, as measured by number of days attended, average daily attendance, and chronic absenteeism rates.
To evaluate the impact of the messages, families in the two Head Start programs were randomized to either an intervention group receiving approximately three messages per week over 15 weeks or to a control group receiving no additional supports. Analyses after the intervention will consider whether randomization to the intervention group improved children’s attendance outcomes during the intervention and in the month following the conclusion of the intervention. Exploratory analyses will consider whether impacts vary by individual, classroom, or center characteristics. In addition to the impact study, BIAS-NG is conducting accompanying implementation and cost analyses to document how the intervention was delivered and at what cost.