Example Job Description
Director of Child Welfare and Attendance
A leader who connects attendance improvement, student welfare, enrollment access, attendance review processes, and assigned case coordination with trustworthy evidence, equitable opportunity, and accountable action.
Interview Planning Resource
Possible Interview Q&A: Director of Child Welfare and Attendance
How to use this resource: Select questions that measure competencies established through the district’s current job analysis. Ask candidates the same predetermined questions under comparable conditions and evaluate responses against the same job-related criteria.
The indicators below describe evidence a strong response may contain; they are not required scripts or the only acceptable answers.
- A dashboard shows chronic absence improving after many students withdraw. What would you check?
Strong response indicators: Examines enrollment and exit accuracy, cohort changes, denominators, transfers, missing students and sustained attendance; avoids equating a smaller roster with improvement.
- How would you distinguish chronic absence from truancy when planning action?
Strong response indicators: Checks current definitions and source records, explains the different measures, identifies underlying barriers and selects support or required procedures appropriate to each case.
- A family reports repeated automated notices despite corrected attendance. What would you do?
Strong response indicators: Verifies source corrections and notification logic, stops erroneous notices through authorized channels, repairs communication and documents a preventive control.
- What evidence should support an attendance review referral?
Strong response indicators: Verifies current procedural requirements, accurate records, documented outreach and offered supports, language access, case ownership and appropriate escalation.
- How would you evaluate an attendance outreach program?
Strong response indicators: Reviews eligible students, contact quality, service access, implementation, sustained attendance and comparable groups; examines mobility and regression to the mean.
- A student lacks enrollment documents and has unstable housing. How would you respond?
Strong response indicators: Coordinates immediately with designated enrollment and homeless-education owners, protects access under current requirements, minimizes disclosure and tracks the handoff.
- The attendance and case-management dashboard disagrees with source records. How would you resolve this?
Strong response indicators: Checks populations, dates, definitions, refreshes, joins and corrections for attendance, enrollment continuity and case follow-through; reconciles with accountable owners, documents fixes and adds preventive checks.
- What evidence would you require before recommending a attendance outreach strategy?
Strong response indicators: Defines educational need, baseline, access and implementation measures, alternatives, cost and capacity; uses appropriate comparisons and uncertainty and specifies a review or exit decision.
- How would you protect sensitive records while helping teams act on attendance, enrollment continuity and case follow-through?
Strong response indicators: Defines purpose and authorized access, minimizes disclosure, protects small groups, uses approved systems and retention rules, and consults responsible privacy and legal owners.
- A vendor proposes AI to automate recommendations in this portfolio. How would you assess it?
Strong response indicators: Tests the proposed use against attendance improvement, student welfare, enrollment access, attendance review processes, and assigned case coordination; reviews accuracy, subgroup errors, privacy, security, accessibility and cost, and preserves authorized human decisions and challenge procedures.
- How would you build staff capability to use attendance, enrollment continuity and case follow-through well?
Strong response indicators: Uses authentic cases, verifies sources and denominators, explains missingness and uncertainty, coaches interpretation and checks whether evidence leads to useful changes in practice.
- What would your first 90 days as Director of Child Welfare and Attendance include?
Strong response indicators: Listens to affected students, families, staff and partners; maps authority and obligations, validates attendance, enrollment continuity and case follow-through, identifies urgent gaps and proposes a focused plan with owners and review dates.
Position Description
The Director of Child Welfare and Attendance leads attendance improvement, student welfare, enrollment access, attendance review processes, and assigned case coordination. The district or employing agency should define the final portfolio, delegated authority, and relationships with other program owners.
The position uses accurate attendance and enrollment data to identify barriers, coordinate supportive casework, and evaluate results; maintains lawful notices, documentation, and due process.
Reports To
Illustrative reporting relationship: Assistant Superintendent of Student Services or other designated administrator. Confirm the locally approved structure and delegated authority.
Required Education and Credentials
Required
- Illustrative district qualification for review: master's degree in educational leadership, pupil services, education, or a related field; confirm the local degree requirement and permitted equivalents.
- Hold a valid California Administrative Services Credential or other authorization appropriate to the actual assignment. District HR must verify current authorization and any additional credential requirements against the final duties. Verify any additional pupil-personnel or attendance-supervision authorization required by the assigned functions.
- Complete district-required employment clearances and training in student privacy, nondiscrimination, accessibility, records, safety, and responsible use of technology.
Preferred
- Graduate coursework or sustained professional learning in applied statistics, program evaluation, improvement science, education data systems, or responsible AI for educational decision-making.
- Advanced preparation in educational leadership, pupil services, education, or a related field, inclusive leadership, family partnership, and coaching adults to use evidence effectively.
Required / Desired Experience
Required Experience
- Illustrative minimum for local review: five years of successful school leadership or pupil services with attendance, enrollment, student welfare, and interagency case coordination; confirm experience thresholds and permitted equivalents.
- Experience supervising assigned staff, coordinating partners, managing resources, and implementing improvement across the assigned portfolio.
- Demonstrated use of attendance, enrollment continuity and case follow-through to investigate needs, verify records, evaluate action, and explain findings and limitations.
Desired Experience
- Experience with California district or regional program requirements, implementation monitoring, and improvement with diverse communities.
- Experience with an attendance and case-management dashboard, approved spreadsheets and tools such as Excel, Google Sheets, Power BI, Tableau, or equivalents; applied data-science literacy sufficient to collaborate with analysts.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Attendance and Student Access
- Lead attendance improvement with schools, students, and families; identify transportation, health, housing, school climate, and instructional barriers.
- Coordinate assigned enrollment, transfer, reentry, and student-welfare functions while protecting access and continuity of education.
- Support attendance review and interagency processes, including SARB as assigned; verify current procedures and avoid unnecessary punitive escalation.
Attendance Data and Case Follow Through
- Reconcile attendance codes, enrollment dates, calendars, partial-day practices, and source corrections with SIS, school, and reporting owners.
- Analyze chronic absence, truancy, mobility, and lost learning time using appropriate definitions and denominators; distinguish these measures in reports.
- Track outreach, referrals, service access, case ownership and sustained attendance change; evaluate interventions beyond notices sent or cases closed.
Compliance and Information Stewardship
- Maintain current notice, referral, documentation, appeal and records procedures within delegated authority; consult legal and program specialists on unresolved requirements.
- Coordinate foster, homeless, disability and other protected student supports with designated owners; prevent barriers caused by missing documents or transfers.
- Use approved case-management tools, controlled sharing, retention and audit trails; assess predictive attendance tools for bias and supportive human use.
Leadership and Improvement
- Supervise assigned personnel and budgets; train school staff in accurate records, respectful outreach, escalation and documentation.
- Connect attendance strategy to school improvement, climate and student services without duplicating other directors' responsibilities.
- Communicate verified trends, barriers and corrective actions to authorized audiences and perform related duties within the classification.
Required Skills and Abilities
Knowledge of
- Attendance improvement, family engagement, enrollment access, SARB and interagency casework within assigned authority.
- Current attendance, truancy, student-welfare, enrollment, records, due-process and nondiscrimination requirements.
- Attendance denominators, enrollment mobility, calendar effects, coding quality, subgroup patterns and intervention evaluation.
- SIS attendance workflows, secure case-management tools, audit trails and lawful interagency sharing.
Ability to
- Translate priorities in attendance improvement, student welfare, enrollment access, attendance review processes, and assigned case coordination into feasible plans, clear responsibilities and measurable follow-through.
- Validate attendance, enrollment continuity and case follow-through using accurate sources, definitions, populations and denominators before making decisions.
- Evaluate implementation and outcomes, examine subgroup opportunity, and distinguish association from causation with qualified analytical support.
- Use approved modern systems and accessible visualizations; partner with data specialists on complex linkage, statistical methods or reproducible analysis.
- Protect confidential information, document consequential decisions, maintain professional judgment and escalate unresolved legal or policy questions.
- Lead staff and partnerships, communicate evidence and uncertainty clearly, and revise ineffective practices with affected communities.
Work Environment
- Work is performed in district offices, classrooms, school grounds, meeting rooms, and other professional settings, with remote participation as authorized.
- The position involves computer use, school visits, observation, facilitation, and detailed review of records, dashboards, assessments, reports, and communications.
- Work requires frequent coordination with school and district leaders, program specialists, students and families as appropriate, data and technology teams, fiscal and legal owners, and external partners.
- The employee encounters interruptions, competing priorities, sensitive student and personnel matters, and urgent concerns requiring calm, documented judgment.
- Workload may increase during planning and budget cycles, program transitions, monitoring and reporting reviews, public meetings, and urgent service concerns.
Other Requirements
- Successfully complete required criminal-record, fingerprint, and employment clearances.
- Complete a tuberculosis risk assessment and any examination required by applicable law or district policy.
- Maintain required credentials and complete district-assigned training in privacy, cybersecurity, accessibility, nondiscrimination, mandated reporting, and workplace safety.
- Protect confidential student and employee records; follow approved access, sharing, retention, incident-reporting, and records-request procedures.
- Travel between district offices, schools, professional-learning locations, and community meetings as assigned.
- Possess a valid California driver's license and maintain insurability when driving is an essential function; confirm the district's actual travel requirements.
- Occasionally work evenings, weekends, or extended hours for school events, public meetings, reporting deadlines, or urgent student and operational matters.
- Perform office and school-based activities involving sitting, standing, walking, communication, and computer use; confirm any role-specific lifting or other physical requirements through local job analysis.
- Perform the essential functions of the position with or without reasonable accommodation.