Nuview Union School District: From undelivered mail to 94.9% attendance

Communication that couldn’t reach families

When Dr. Anny Iacono joined Nuview Union School District as the Director of Special Education and Student Services two and a half years ago, she quickly identified a fundamental problem: the district’s primary method of communicating with families about attendance simply wasn’t working.

Nuview serves a rural community in California where mail is unreliable. Families living in areas without reliable mail service, including roughly 10% of the student population experiencing homelessness, were never receiving the letters the district was spending time and money to send. School Attendance Review Board (SARB) meeting notices went unanswered. Intervention letters disappeared. The district was investing in a process that, in Dr. Iacono’s words, “happened through osmosis” and “had zero value.”

The data itself was unreliable, too. Attendance figures pulled from the previous system didn’t match what staff could see in their own student information system (SIS), leaving teams constantly questioning their own reports. Meanwhile, chronic absenteeism had climbed as high as 27–40%. Staff were burning out filling in eight-page School Attendance Review Team (SART) forms for every individual student, and communication with families was nearly nonexistent— unless a parent happened to answer the phone or walk through the door.

How Attendance Plus replaced unreachable mail with trusted communication

Implementation was smoother than expected, thanks in large part to how intuitive the platform proved to be. Then came what Dr. Iacono calls the “good problem”: the response rate went from essentially zero to overwhelming.

“Almost all of the parents responded. All of a sudden you’re answering, like, 100 messages. We were used to zero,” said Dr. Iacono. 

The attendance data since implementing Attendance Plus reflects a district-wide upward trend across every school:

Every school improved. The middle school showed the greatest growth and, according to Dr. Iacono, now takes attendance “very seriously.”

A shift in community culture

What Dr. Iacono is most proud of isn’t just the data. It’s the cultural shift that data reflects.

Before ParentSquare Attendance Plus, parents arriving at formal SARB meetings with the district attorney often came in cold, surprised, or resistant. Today, they arrive informed. The consistent, early communication from the school site, warm, personalized messages checking in when a student is absent, has built the kind of relationship that makes those harder conversations possible.

“When I have the meetings with parents now versus before, they’re really getting it, because they’ve actually been in communication with the site team for so long,” said Dr. Iacono. “They know it’s coming, so they’re not surprised.”

Dr. Iacono describes a new vision of what attendance communication should feel like: not an automated robocall, but a message that tells a parent, “We really missed your kid today.” One that communicates that a child is valued.

“Those personal messages coming from our attendance clerk saying, ‘Hey, we really missed your kid today’—it feels like your child is valued. And I think that’s missing in a lot of other types of communication,” said Dr. Iacono. 

For a community where parents may have grown up in an era when skipping school wasn’t treated as a big deal, or even noticed, that message represents a real culture shift. Dr. Iacono sees Attendance Plus not just as a tool for intervention, but as a foundation for belonging.

What’s next: Workflows and the possibilities ahead

Dr. Iacono is energized by Attendance Plus’s new Automated Workflow feature, something she counts as a “wish come true.” With legal letters now automated, attendance clerks no longer have to navigate confusing timing rules manually. Her vision extends well beyond compliance letters.

She’s already planning to use Automated Workflows to celebrate Tier 1 students, sending positive messages to families of kids with strong attendance records, not just outreach to those who are struggling. It’s a both/and approach: the full continuum of communication, from celebration to intervention.

“Send your Tier 1 rock stars’ parents a great message,” said Dr. Iacono. “It’s awesome to do both ends.”

Seeing what’s possible with ParentSquare Attendance Plus

Nuview Union’s experience illustrates a straightforward truth: interventions can’t work if families never hear about them. Attendance Plus gave Dr. Iacono and her team the family engagement infrastructure to close that gap: a platform parents already trusted, a voice that felt personal, and a consistency that built real relationships over time.

“We can do all the interventions we want, we can offer all those services, but if our parents don’t know that they exist because we’re not communicating with them effectively, it’s not going to work,” said Dr. Iacono. “Now our parents know. And that’s been the key to our success.”