The Challenge: Attendance and Funding for Schools
Maintaining student attendance and reducing chronic absenteeism continue to be a critical issue for ensuring student success and securing more attendance based funding.
As traditional methods of engagement and teaching evolve daily, there is a need for newer solutions to meet the challenges of attendance and engagement. This is where esports platforms come into play, offering a new method of instruction that leverages the power of what students love doing to enhance student engagement, attendance, and ultimately, school funding.
Understanding Attendance Based Funding
Many states in the U.S. use attendance-based funding models to allocate financial resources to schools. These models, such as Average Daily Attendance (ADA), directly tie funding to the number of students attending school each day. While this system incentivizes schools to maintain high attendance rates, it also means that schools with higher absenteeism face financial penalties. Ensuring consistent student attendance is therefore essential for schools to secure the funding needed to provide quality education.
Student Count Options for School Funding
There are many terms and methods used when discussing student counts and their impact on school funding. Different approaches such as Single Count Date, Multiple Count Dates, Average Daily Attendance (ADA), Average Daily Membership (ADM), Single Count Period, and Multiple Count Periods each play a unique role in determining funding.
Each funding model has its own advantages and disadvantages related to accuracy, equity, administrative burden, and the ability to incentivize positive student and school behaviors. Policymakers must carefully consider these factors to align funding mechanisms with state educational goals and priorities.
Single Count Date: Schools collect student enrollment or attendance data on a single specified day, typically early in the fall. This count determines the funding for the entire year.
Multiple Count Dates: Schools take attendance or enrollment counts on multiple specified days throughout the school year. These counts are averaged to determine funding.
Average Daily Attendance (ADA): Funding is based on the average number of students attending school each day over the school year.
Average Daily Membership (ADM): Calculates the average number of students enrolled over a specific period, typically the entire school year, regardless of daily attendance.
Single Count Period: Schools report enrollment over a specific period (e.g., a week or a month), and this average is used for funding.
Multiple Count Periods: Schools take enrollment or attendance counts over several distinct periods throughout the school year. The averages of these counts determine funding.
Why Attendance Drops and How Esports Can Help
School climate and instructional relevance strongly influence attendance. Research shows absenteeism increases when students experience:
Low connection to peers or teachers
Limited interest in academic content
Weak engagement or challenge
Ineffective instruction or discipline practices
Esports directly addresses these barriers:
Builds community
Creates excitement for learning
Motivates attendance through interest-driven instruction
Supports students who struggle in traditional classrooms
Welcomes diverse learners, including special education populations
And unlike traditional extracurriculars, esports appeals to a broader range of students, especially those who typically do not join clubs or sports.
The Gameplan Advantage: Esports as Instruction
Gameplan integrates esports directly into learning, not just after school. This instructional approach enhances both engagement and attendance.
With Gameplan, districts can:
Use esports within CTE pathways
(IT, Digital Arts, Media, Business, Cybersecurity)
Offer flexible curricular and extracurricular models
Courses + clubs = maximum reach and inclusive engagement.
Track attendance, engagement, and learning data
Schools can see the impact on participation in real time.
Support teachers with professional development
Helping them confidently run programs that boost attendance.
Offer standards-aligned instructional content:
Real Results: What the Data and Schools Tell Us
A yearlong study across 3 U.S. high schools showed that integrating esports into school programming delivers measurable attendance gains:
Absences dropped from 10.84 to 9.10 days per student
Schools regained 259.5 student days
Districts protected $20,106 in ADA-equivalent funding
These gains came from a single implementation year, demonstrating how interest-based instruction creates consistent motivation to attend.
Esports is an instructional strategy with quantifiable impact.
Ready to Improve Attendance and Strengthen Funding?
When students feel engaged and connected, they attend more and when they attend more, schools receive more funding to reinvest in instruction, staffing, and student programs. And while esports doesn’t solve every root cause of absenteeism, it is one of the few solutions proven to produce immediate, schoolwide impact.
Start your journey today by scheduling a call with us!
