To get students back in classrooms, Oakland Unified decided to test out a simple solution—paying students for perfect attendance. The Equitable Design Project, which just ended its second trial year at Oakland Unified, gives students $50 every Friday if they attend class five days a week. If high schoolers are tardy, cut class or miss school entirely, they forfeit the money for that week. For the last two years, the pilot program operated for the final 10 weeks of the school year. Each day, enrollees had to check in and out of school by briefly meeting with a key adult. They also completed a short assessment about their mental health and classroom experience once a week. School administrators at seven different Oakland Unified high schools signed up students who had a record of severe chronic absenteeism. Most of the students identified as African American or Latino, and many were unhoused or in unstable living conditions. The program aimed to increase student attendance and connectedness at school. By incentivizing students to attend class, a routine can start to stick for some program participants, said Zaia Vera, a  leader of the project and the head of social emotional learning at Oakland Unified. Chronic absentee experts said research shows that districts need multiple approaches to get more kids into the classroom. Each truant student may have an abundance of reasons why getting to school is a constant challenge, and COVID-19 only exacerbated this issue. Strengthening students’ connection to school is one part of the solution to reduce chronic absenteeism. Last spring, state lawmakers asked the Policy Analysis for California Education, a research center led by Stanford University faculty, to recommend strategies to encourage students to return to school. The center found five issues schools key to improving attendance: meeting students’ basic needs, creating a safe school environment, engaging students in learning, helping students feel valued in school and crafting meaningful relationships between students and school adults.