This Redwood City startup is using behavioral science to battle student absenteeism

When children miss school, their parents usually receive a stern phone call from an administrator, or worse, a truancy letter.

However disturbing such messages may be to the parent who receive them, they're generally not effective at reducing chronic absenteeism.

EveryDay Labs Inc. believes it has a better solution. The Redwood City startup has crafted a research-tested system that sends carefully crafted nudges to parents to help determine and remedy the causes of their children's absences.

Traditionally, "parents receive these really legalistic, scary letters in the mail," said Emily Bailard, EveryDay Labs' CEO. "What we do is really different than that."

The company, which raised $8 million in seed funding earlier this month, is the outgrowth of a research project launched by two professors — Todd Rogers, who teaches behavioral science and public policy at Harvard University, and Avi Feller, who specializes in public policy and data science at the University of California, Berkeley. Rogers and Feller studied different ways to reduce absenteeism at a school district in Philadelphia.

After one of their methods proved to be significantly more effective than traditional methods, the district asked them to develop it into a service. Unable to do that in a research context, Rogers and Feller created Everyday Labs instead.

The company's service stems from two phenomena the professors uncovered in their research — parents underestimate their children's absences by a factor of two and most parents of kids who have large numbers of absences overestimate the number of other students that have been absent as often.

To address both misconceptions head-on, EveryDay Labs sends parents messages with the total number of days their children have missed and the average number of days other students at their school have been absent. The company has completed more than two dozen randomized, controlled trials to determine the best messages to send parents and the right time to send them and found those messages to be the most effective, Bailard said.

"If we can help them track it, that makes a difference," she said. "When I get a message that tells me that Jane’s missed five days of school this year, and that other students at her school have only missed two days, that is a wake up call."

The company is offering a needed service

EveryDay Labs not only nudges parents when their children miss school, it also offers resources they can use to improve attendance. Among those resources are ones that are important during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic — where parents can get a coronavirus test and what to do if their children test positive.

Absenteeism has long been a problem for schools and districts. But it became particularly acute last year when students around the country were supposed to be attending school remotely due to the pandemic. Absenteeism soared, particular among at-risk kids.

"Amongst more vulnerable students — students who were experiencing homelessness, students living in low-income households — we saw their absence rates double," Bailard said.

EveryDay Labs provides an important service for school districts, she said. Many of them don't have the resources to combat and address the reasons for student absenteeism, she said.

"Guidance counselors and social workers are really focused on helping meet the needs of students and families who are really in crisis," Bailard said. "It can be really hard for them to find the time to reach out and find support for the student who’s missing 5 to 10 days of school or 10 to 20 days of school."

The company counts among its customers more than seven school districts that have a combined 1 million students, she said. Among its clients are Redwood City School District, Ravenswood City School District, Sacramento City Unified School District and Los Angeles Unified School District.

EveryDay Labs plans to use its new funds, which came from investors including Reach Capital, Rethink Impact, Gary Community Ventures, City Light Capital, RedHouse Education, Edovate Capital Bonsal Capital and Copper

Wire Ventures, to grow its services beyond its current customer base, Bailard said.

"We consistently reduce chronic absenteeism levels by 10 and 15 percent," Bailard said. "Our goal is to reduce student absenteeism in the U.S. by 5 percent."