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Strategic Student
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Early warning

Support Needs Estimator

Which warning signs does this student show, and where should support start?

This student

Example student. Change any answer to use your own.
Attendance

Share of school days missed this year, for any reason.

Course performance

Grades this year in English and math.

Behavior

Discipline this school year.

Changed schools this year or last year?

Do not count normal moves, like 5th to 6th grade.

Also true for this student (optional)

Used only to match supports. Never part of the read.

Targeted

One warning sign: attendance

Uses attendance, behavior, and course grades. A screen to start a conversation.

Next step

Area by area

How this works

The read counts warning signs on the three early-warning ABCs: attendance, behavior, and course performance. Each one reads Clear, Watch, or Warning sign. There is no score and no percent.

  • Attendance: under 5% of days missed is clear, 5 to 9.9% is watch, 10% or more is a warning sign (chronically absent), and 20% or more is severe chronic absence.
  • Course performance, K to 5: well below grade level in reading or math is a warning sign; somewhat below is watch.
  • Course performance, 6 to 8: an F in English or math is a warning sign; a D is watch.
  • Course performance, 9 to 12: two or more core-course semester Fs, or a GPA under 2.0, is a warning sign; one F is watch. A GPA of exactly 2.0 is not under the line.
  • Behavior: any suspension this year is a warning sign; repeated office referrals without a suspension is watch.

A school change this year or last year, and seeming disengaged, can raise the read to Watch but are never warning signs on their own. "Not sure" leaves an indicator out; it never counts as clear.

  • No signs: no warning signs and nothing to watch.
  • Watch: no warning signs, at least one thing to watch.
  • Targeted (Tier 2): one warning sign.
  • Coordinated (Tier 2 or 3): two warning signs, or attendance at 20% or more.
  • Intensive (Tier 3): all three, or attendance at 20% or more plus another warning sign.

IEP, English learner, meal support, and housing only change which supports show. Supports come from the Strategic Student intervention library, ranked by the same rule as the Intervention Recommender. A card with a warning sign shows supports built for students who need more than a classroom routine, and supports written for one condition (a health need, housing, an IEP) appear only when you check that box.

Based on the middle-grades early-warning flags from Robert Balfanz and colleagues, the University of Chicago Consortium freshman on-track research, and the Attendance Works chronic absence bands. It is a screen to start a conversation. It does not predict what one student will do.

Keep going

Intervention RecommenderA student is struggling. Which supports fit your role and their needs? Attendance What-IfIs this student chronically absent, and how many more days can they miss this year and stay under 10%? Freshman On-Track CheckIs this 9th grader on track to finish freshman year ready for 10th grade?