By Frederick M. Hess
Education Week
March 19, 2025
Since the pandemic, chronic absenteeism has loomed large. Educators are seeking strategies and partners who can help tackle it. Well, getting kids back to school is one place where it’s long struck me that professional sports franchises could make a big difference. After all, professional athletes live daily with a show-up-early, work-hard routine. Indeed, of the teen and tween role models—like actors, social media influencers, and singers—athletes may be the ones with the most obvious ties to schools, colleges, and a grind-it-out ethos. When I learned the Cleveland Browns have spent a decade partnering with Ohio schools to improve attendance and launched the Stay in the Game! Attendance Network in 2019, I wanted to learn more. I recently had the chance to chat with team owner Dee Haslam about the effort. Here’s what she had to say:
—Rick
Rick: Dee, can you tell me a bit about the Browns’ efforts to combat chronic absenteeism?
Dee: Stay in the Game! is a learning network that seeks to dramatically improve student attendance across Ohio. Our goal is to have 90 percent of students attend school more than 90 percent of the time through a statewide attendance movement, partnerships, peer-to-peer learning, and proven practices. We partner with districts across Ohio, serving more than 495,000 students. Stay in the Game! is unique because we work with the National Football League’s Cleveland Browns and two Major League Soccer teams, the Columbus Crew and FC Cincinnati, to encourage students to attend school. The athletes are great examples of why it matters for students to show up every day.
RICK: How did you decide to focus on this issue?
Dee: When my husband Jimmy and I bought the Cleveland Browns in 2012, the franchise had several community-impact programs, which had a scattered impact. We chose to focus on education. It’s an issue we are passionate about, and Jimmy and I believe every child has the right to a quality education, no matter their Zip code. Around that time, we met with Cleveland’s superintendent of schools, Eric Gordon. He told us that Cleveland was dealing with chronic absenteeism and thought there was a pivotal role we could play. Our partnership with the district has been so valuable because they wanted an early-intervention approach. We don’t want to wait until students are chronically absent. We also don’t think this issue should be solely the responsibility of the school or families—they must both be at the table, along with others in the community. Fortunately, as a sports team, our strength is organizing, convening, and bringing people to the table. Together, we realized that we could make a tremendous difference in the lives of kids.
Rick: How does this partnership work?
Dee: We are thrilled to have excellent founding partners in this work, including the Ohio education and workforce department, Proving Ground at Harvard University’s Center for Education Policy Research, and our new network manager, Battelle, which has better positioned us to expand our reach across the state. What makes this partnership so strong is that each partner has a role and does what it does best. There is bipartisan consensus that chronic absenteeism is a problem, so we have been fortunate to find political support across the state, from school boards to the governor.
Rick: What does all of this look like in practice?
Dee: All districts and schools across Ohio are invited to join the Stay in the Game! Attendance Network. While participation is free, partner districts must ensure that their leadership is willing to prioritize improving attendance through data-driven decisions in a way that is positive, preventative, and supportive of students and their families. When a district partners with Stay in the Game!, they receive a variety of resources, including an online Campaign Playbook which aids in the development of a localized, data-informed attendance campaign and is the basis of our work. The network also helps to ensure that districts can access and interpret attendance data to inform their goals and communication and engagement strategies, all of which is housed in the playbook. Once the district strategy is set, the school system receives team-branded campaign materials to raise awareness, and their team partner organizes recognition and reward opportunities to create excitement around attending school.
Rick: You mentioned a Campaign Playbook that you share with districts. What’s that entail?
Dee: The Campaign Playbook is an online platform districts use that leads them through developing their attendance team, uploading relevant data, and analyzing that data to pinpoint where there are attendance issues needing attention. It provides districts with ways to do a root-cause analysis and clearly identify attendance challenges and barriers. The playbook also provides guidance on creating a campaign tailored to a specific district and the students district leaders need to reach most. Our committed districts update their data quarterly and review their results to continually refine their approach. The playbook has a chat feature for districts to talk with each other and Stay in the Game! staff to share information and ask questions. The support from the teams complement the district strategy in the playbook.
Rick: What are some of the materials you supply to schools?
Dee: We provide materials like yard signs, banners, player posters, and other handouts that can be used to encourage attendance. One form of outreach is especially impactful: student-specific postcards showing how often they attend class. When a student comes home, their parents will often look through their backpacks and find the postcard. Many parents have no idea that after missing just 10 days of school, their student will have fallen behind. This letter is one way to raise awareness. Harvard’s Proving Ground tested this intervention, and we were really surprised to see how much of an impact something as simple as a postcard had.
Rick: One of your advantages in doing this work, obviously, is a roster full of ballplayers who are local celebrities. Are they involved in this push?
Dee: Absolutely! We are always looking to get our athletes involved. They really understand that showing up every day, whether that be to practice or to school, is key. When they go to schools to interact with students and staff, not only do the kids love it, but it’s also great for our athletes. They can become ambassadors and really dedicate themselves to this cause. Browns defensive tackle Maurice Hurst wore cleats designed by students at Orchard Park Academy as part of Stay in the Game! and the NFL’s My Cause My Cleats program. Dustin Hopkins, a Browns placekicker, will spend extra time with special-needs students during his visits. When one of our former player ambassadors was a student, he didn’t miss a day of school and he draws from that experience on his visits. Those personal stories can be incredibly powerful.
Rick: What are your plans going forward?
Dee: Our goal is to increase the coverage of Stay in the Game! across Ohio. Currently, we work with 161 of the 611 districts across the state, and we hope our partnership with Battelle will allow us to impact even more students. Our collaboration with the Columbus Crew and FC Cincinnati allow us to partner with districts outside of the Cleveland area. We know that other franchises and regions outside of Ohio are interested in the work that we are doing. Though our focus is on Ohio, we’re happy to share the lessons we have learned, the processes we use, and our Campaign Playbook. The Campaign Playbook is continuously evolving based on what we hear. One thing we know we’re getting right is our emphasis on collecting measurable data.
Rick: What sort of data are you looking at?
Dee: We look at chronic attendance across all categories—satisfactory, at risk, moderate, and severe—and we disaggregate the data across a variety of student groups. Attendance data is the key to our work, especially when it allows us to analyze what is happening in specific districts and schools. High-quality data can show where attendance is an issue in a specific grade, among schools with later starts, or is centralized in a particular region. This allows resources to be more effectively targeted to specific challenges or groups of students. It also allows us to learn what works and what doesn’t.
Rick: What have the results been so far?
Dee: Stay in the Game! Attendance Network continues to see year-over-year declines in chronic absenteeism across partner districts. In 2023, we saw a a 5.2 percent reduction in chronic absenteeism, and results from 2024 data evaluation demonstrated that Stay in the Game! partner districts continue to outperform Ohio schools in reducing chronic absenteeism. Among the districts we work with, chronic absences declined by 2.9 percent in 2024, compared with 1.2 percent across the state as a whole. Similarly, districts we worked with had larger increases in satisfactory attendance than districts outside the network.
Rick: What would you like teachers to know about this work?
Dee: Teachers ought to support improvement, not perfection, in attendance and show an interest in learning why students are absent. Students indicate that when a trusted adult cares about their well-being, they are more likely to want to be at school. Teachers can also highlight just how important attendance is to students and their parents. We don’t expect teachers to do it all alone, but even adding phrases like “Can’t wait to see you tomorrow!” and talking about what students have to look forward to can be a really strong and exciting message for students. The work done by Stay in the Game! tries to give educators the tools they need to keep students engaged. We have tremendous gratitude for educators, administrators, family members, and of course, the students themselves, who understand the importance of working together to create success in this area. We look forward to continuing to work with our partners to make a positive impact helping students Stay in the Game!