When we gathered our student reengagement counselors into a room together a few months ago and asked them to suggest ways that school districts could recruit more disengaged students back to school, they had some interesting suggestions.

“Headsets,” said one counselor. “Because whoever does this is going to be on the phone a lot.”

How much? Well, when we can get a student on the phone on the first try, it sometimes takes just one call to persuade them to return. But often lost students don’t even pick up the phone on a first call, or a second, or a third. And even more often, the number we have for them no longer is active. So we have to start calling friends and family members and searching through social media.

Most districts don’t have the resources to dedicate staff members to a temporary phone bank. That’s one of many reasons so many districts turn to Graduation Alliance for reengagement help. But while we’d certainly love for every district to work with us, our top priority is to help more students get to graduation day, which is why we prepared a report on the processes we use to persuade students to return to school. 

Download our report of recruitment and reengagement methods for free here.