Stay in the Game!
Encouraging school attendance with the Cleveland Browns Foundation
( Services )
- Customer Experience
- Tech & Data
The Stay in the Game! Attendance Network, supported by the Cleveland Browns Foundation and Ohio Department of Education, is a learning network with a mission to improve student attendance.
When it was launched in 2019, admins used spreadsheets, email, and calendars to manage and plan their attendance campaigns. However, as the program expanded, they quickly outgrew this approach. DEPT® came in to design and develop a custom application to track goals, organize resources, and scale the program.
Everyday attendance matters more than you think
According to Stay in the Game!, students who consistently attend school are 6.7x more likely to read at their grade level by the end of third grade and 9x more likely to graduate on time.
But getting kids to attend school consistently can be a big challenge. Stay in the Game! is working to change that.
Launched in 2019 by the Cleveland Browns Foundation, Ohio Department of Education, and Harvard’s Proving Ground, Stay in the Game! (now managed by Battelle) supports school district administrators in creating localized, data-informed attendance campaigns as well as student engagement opportunities, peer learning, and campaign materials. School administrators set goals through the online program and receive access to resources and strategies to affect attendance. At the end of the school year, admins can track whether their campaign has had an impact.
To better support district staff in creating attendance campaigns and all the activities required to run the program, they enlisted DEPT®. We joined the team to design and develop the custom app called “The Playbook.”
Designing The Playbook for district staff
The Playbook’s core user is administrative staff, and we wanted the app to serve their every need.
We started with discovery to identify the Stay in the Game workflow, analyzing how they used spreadsheets and communicated around content and outreach. Through a design sprint, we quickly created a prototype for the platform. Then, we conducted usability testing sessions with actual members of school systems who provided feedback.
As we rolled out the first version of the platform, we used the initial members of the program as beta testers, refining the platform after the first year to dial in the interface and make it truly efficient.
Development with scalability in mind
Initially developed for a limited number of school districts in northeastern Ohio, we started with a simple architecture.
When they were ready to expand into more districts, we delivered platform and architecture improvements to allow for multiple organizations.
Decreasing chronic absenteeism
During the 2022-23 school year, districts that participated in Stay in the Game! lowered their chronic absenteeism by 5.2% on average. And the following year (2023-24), districts lowered absenteeism by another 2.9%. Some districts lowered chronic absenteeism by as much as 10.9%. For comparison, the state’s average for those years was 3.2% and 1.2%, respectively.
What started as a program for 17 districts is now at 150 (as of Fall 2024). As for the Playbook, it will continue evolving with the needs of school admins. DEPT® is committed to innovating and finding ways to make attendance initiatives easier and more effective.
150+
Ohio districts participating in 2024-25
450k
students represented
5.2%
lowered chronic absenteeism in 2022-23
““We are committed to decreasing chronic absenteeism across the state of Ohio. To help accomplish this, we’re eager to welcome more districts into the Network each year. Due in part to the creation and continual adaptation of the Playbook, we’re confident we’ll be able to scale and continue to provide high-quality support for districts.”
”Renee Harvey, Vice President of the Cleveland Browns Foundation
