CHARLESTON, S.C. – The Charleston County School District is bringing back an attendance incentive program, which was first piloted in March 2025.
District leaders said the nine-week program intends to ensure more students are in the classroom, as they identified a positive trend when it first began before testing season. Eligible CCSD families received $25 per week if their child attended school five days a week. The funds were deposited into a restricted VISA card, which could be spent weekly or built up into a higher amount. Families applied them to groceries, restaurants, utilities, clothing, and more.
“It was encouraging to see that families were using the funds for critical needs as a benefit to the attendance they were committing to in terms of having their kids there in perfect attendance a week at time,” Daniel Prentice, chief financial officer for CCSD, said. “That was an additional data point beyond the academic improvements, knowing those funds were used for something to benefit those families, and hopefully help them bridge that gap.”
CCSD had budgeted $400,000 for the schools that participated, and nearly $225,000 was used. In the original program, there were ten schools total, but the Burke feeder pattern added several more.
As a result of the program, things such as perfect attendance rates, students’ grades, and the school’s culture and climate improved.
“There were a couple weeks where an entire grade had perfect attendance,” James Costner, director of special projects for the CCSD Superintendent’s Office, said.
“Numerous teachers and principals that said ‘every kid is in class, I can actually instruct the students.’ The biggest difference it made was the climate in their room, where they’re not having to get the kids started, and pull the kids who missed a couple days to the side to catch them up. They were able to do the work the peers. It showed when they took the SC Ready assessment.”
Simmons Pinckney Middle School is the first school restarting the award program this week, one of several downtown schools hoping to decrease chronic absenteeism.
“This year, they’re thinking a little bit differently about it. So, some of them are trying to encourage good attendance habits towards the beginning of the year, hoping that some of the attendance habits form during the incentive campaign will prolong through the rest of the year,” Costner said. “And that we’ll see even more enhancement and academic outcomes as well as better attendance for the rest of the year, even after the attendance incentive goes away.”
Several more schools are expected to implement the program again after winter break.
