Summary
In March 2015, we reported on the systems to improve student attendance in Northland School Division. We found a system that accepted poor student attendance as a status quo. The division’s schools and central office did not have adequate systems to improve student attendance, and no one, any level, was taking responsibility for poor attendance results. At that time, we made two recommendations to Northland School Division and one recommendation to the Department of Education, saying the division must develop a plan to guide its efforts to improve attendance, and the department must ensure the division does so.
We will use what we found in this progress report, along with information we will gather over the next year or two on improvements made by the department and the division, to plan our follow-up audit on the implementation of our three outstanding recommendations.