Monitoring Report - Results

Code: R-1

Title: Safety & Belonging

Status: Active

Adopted: August 26, 2025

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Safety & Belonging 

Dr. Kristi Dominguez, Superintendent 

Contents

• Introduction
• Policy
• Policy, Monitoring Indicators & Progress
• Conclusion 

Introduction 

This report marks our first monitoring effort under the newly adopted Results Policy 1 (R-1), which, along with all other Results and Operational Expectations policies, has been rewritten to closely align with Ferndale School District’s Strategic Plan. This alignment ensures greater coherence between board governance, district policies, and our shared vision for student success. As part of this effort, we are also evolving the tools we use to measure progress — shifting toward more intentional, meaningful indicators that reflect the outcomes our community values most.

In support of these changes, we will be launching redesigned student, staff, and family surveys this fall, created in-house to better align with the board’s goals and to reduce reliance on external vendors during a time of fiscal constraint. These surveys will allow us to ask more targeted questions, including those that help assess whether “students experience a feeling of safety, a sense of belonging, and the support needed to be fully engaged in their learning” — a central component of R-1. While this current report draws primarily on legacy data from Panorama surveys, we’ve done our best to provide a clear, relevant picture for each indicator. Future reports will be strengthened by the new survey tools and the more specific insights they will provide.

Results Policy 1 (R-1)

We will work to ensure that all students experience a feeling of safety, a sense of belonging, and the support needed to be fully engaged in their learning.

1. Students will feel safe, seen, heard, respected, and valued as members of a diverse community.

2. We will increase the number of students who are in class and actively participating by fostering environments that promote executive functioning skills, positive character development and civic engagement.

Policy, Monitoring Indicators & Progress

We will work to ensure that all students experience a feeling of safety, a sense of belonging, and the support needed to be fully engaged in their learning.

Superintendent Interpretation: The Superintendent interprets this to mean the district will ensure students experience environments where they feel safe, supported, and able to engage fully in their learning, as measured by climate and culture survey responses and attendance rates.

1. Students will feel safe, seen, heard, respected, and valued as members of a diverse community.

Superintendent Interpretation:

The Superintendent interprets this sub-policy to mean that students across diverse backgrounds will self-report high levels of personal safety, support, respect, and belonging.

Monitoring Indicator(s)

We will know we are compliant when:

1.1 The percentage of students who respond favorably to Climate & Culture survey questions related to feeling a sense of belonging, safety, support and respect will continually improve.

In compliance.

This indicator calls for continual improvement in the percentage of students who report feeling a sense of belonging, safety, support, and respect. While our updated surveys—launching this fall—will allow us to report on each of these dimensions individually and with greater precision, this year’s report relies on existing data from the Panorama student surveys administered over the past three school years. Specifically, we use results from the “Belonging,” “School Safety,” and “Teacher-Student Relationships” scales as proxies for the desired student experience.

Beginning in the 2025–26 school year, we are also adjusting the timing of survey administration. In previous years, surveys were administered in February, a time of year when students and staff often experience high levels of fatigue and low engagement, particularly leading up to spring break. This timing may have limited the accuracy and depth of the responses. Moving forward, surveys will be administered in both the fall (September/October) and spring (April). We anticipate that this change will yield more representative data and allow for better insight into how student experiences evolve throughout the year.

The data show a mixed pattern of improvement and decline across grade spans and domains. Among students in grades 6–12, there has been steady improvement in reported belonging (from 32% in 2022–23 to 37% in 2024–25) and a slight uptick in perceived safety (from 52% to 53%). However, the percentage of secondary students reporting positive teacher-student relationships declined this past year (from 54% to 44%). For students in grades 4–5, positive perceptions of school safety have improved consistently over the past three years (from 62% to 67%), while belonging increased in 2023–24 but dipped slightly in 2024–25 (from 65% to 60%). Similarly, teacher-student relationships among elementary students remained high in prior years but saw a decline this year (from 73% to 65%).

While this data suggests progress in some areas and concerns in others, it reinforces the importance of disaggregating student experience data more clearly moving forward. Our new survey tools will allow us to do exactly that—ensuring we can monitor each component of this indicator with more actionable clarity in future reports.

		2022-2023	2023-2024	2024-2025
Belonging	Grades 4-5	61%	65%	60%
	Grades 6-12	32%	33%	37%
School Safety	Grades 4-5	62%	64%	67%
	Grades 6-12	52%	52%	53%
Teacher-Student Relationships	Grades 4-5	73%	73%	65%
	Grades 6-12	53%	54%	44%

1.2 Disaggregated survey data shows equitable experiences for students of different racial and ethnic backgrounds.

In compliance. 

To evaluate equitable experiences across racial and ethnic groups, we used the Maximum Representation Model, which compares the results of all students who identify with a given group to those who do not. This approach ensures that multiracial students are fully represented in every group they identify with. As shown in the table, most gaps between group and non-group responses are relatively small—typically within a few percentage points—across the Belonging, School Safety, and Teacher-Student Relationships domains. These minimal gaps suggest that students across racial and ethnic backgrounds are reporting broadly similar experiences, indicating equity in how students are experiencing school environments. Continued monitoring using this model will allow us to track where disparities emerge and ensure all students feel equally supported, safe, and connected at school.

Results by Maximum Representation 

	Belonging			School Safety			Teacher-Student Relationships
	Group	Other	Gap	Group	Other	Gap	Group	Other	Gap
Hispanic	42%	44%	-2%	55%	58%	-3%	49%	50%	-1%
Native American	42%	44%	-2%	62%	56%	6%	46%	51%	-5%
Asian	45%	43%	2%	60%	57%	3%	47%	51%	-4%
Black/African American	42%	44%	-2%	56%	57%	-1%	48%	51%	-3%
Nat HA/ Other P.I.	43%	44%	-1%	58%	57%	1%	46%	50%	-4%
White	44%	44%	-	56%	60%	-4%	51%	48%	3%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. We will increase the number of students who are in class and actively participating by fostering environments that promote executive functioning skills, positive character development and civic engagement.

Superintendent Interpretation: The Superintendent interprets this sub-policy to mean that students will demonstrate strong attendance, engagement, and social-emotional growth.

Monitoring Indicator(s)

We will know we are compliant when:

2.1 Student average attendance rates continually improve.

In compliance.

This indicator focuses on increasing student attendance rates as a reflection of environments that support executive functioning, positive character development, and civic engagement. According to data from Skyward, our student information system, districtwide average attendance rates have shown an overall upward trend over the past four years. Attendance increased from 86.6% in 2021–22 to 87.9% in 2022–23, and then to 90.0% in 2023–24. While the most recent school year (2024–25) saw a slight decrease to 89.5%, this rate still represents a notable improvement over earlier years.

Ferndale School District's average student attendance rates have remained quite stable over the past four years.

Data pulled from Skyward, July 2025.

86.56%	87.89%	90.00%	89.54%
2021-22	2022-23	2023-24	2024-25

It is important to distinguish between average attendance rate—which calculates the average percentage of days attended by students—and regular attendance rate, which measures the percentage of students who attend school 90% or more of the time. While this indicator specifically monitors average attendance, the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) also uses regular attendance as a key accountability metric. According to OSPI, Ferndale School District’s regular attendance rate improved significantly in 2023–24, rising to 71.7%, up from 61.6% in 2022–23 and 62.2% in 2021–22.

This overall positive trajectory in both average and regular attendance suggests that many of our schools are making progress in creating conditions that support consistent student participation. Continued efforts will focus on identifying and addressing barriers to attendance to ensure this growth continues and is equitably experienced by all students.

2.2 Disaggregated attendance data shows equitable experiences for students of different racial and ethnic backgrounds.

In compliance.

This indicator calls for disaggregated attendance data to reflect equitable experiences for students of different racial and ethnic backgrounds. To assess this, we apply the Maximum Representation method, which compares the average attendance rate of each student group (e.g., students who identify as Hispanic/Latino) to the rate of their non-group peers (e.g., students who do not identify as Hispanic/Latino). This method ensures all students who identify with a particular group are included, even if they identify with multiple racial or ethnic categories, and helps us identify where disparities may exist.

This year’s analysis shows promising signs of progress. Attendance gaps between group and non-group comparisons were less than two percentage points for students identifying as Hispanic/Latino, Black/African American, and Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander—suggesting a trend toward more equitable experiences across these groups. However, we continue to see a larger gap for students identifying as American Indian/Alaskan Native (AI/AN), whose average attendance rate was 84.1% compared to 90.4% for their non-AI/AN peers. While the overall direction of the data affirms the impact of ongoing efforts to close opportunity gaps, this disparity highlights the need for focused attention and continued support. We remain committed to monitoring disaggregated attendance data and implementing targeted strategies to ensure all students experience environments that support consistent, engaged participation in learning.

	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24	2024-25
Hispanic/Latino	84.60%	86.40%	88.70%	88.10%
Non-Hispanic/Latino	87.20%	88.40%	90.40%	90.00%
American Indian/Alaskan Native (AI/AN)	80.90%	83.30%	85.80%	84.10%
Non-AI/AN	87.50%	88.60%	90.70%	90.40%
Asian	89.70%	89.80%	91.30%	91.60%
Non-Asian	86.30%	87.70%	89.90%	89.30%
Black/African American	85.50%	86.80%	88.90%	88.20%
Non-Black/African American	86.70%	88%	90.20%	89.80%
Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander	85.60%	86.00%	88.60%	90.80%
Non-Nat HA/Oth Pl	86.60%	87.90%	90.00%	89.50%
White	87.30%	88.60%	90.60%	90.30%
Non-White	83.90%	85.70%	88.10%	87.40%

 

	2022-23			2023-24			2024-25
	Group	Other	Gap	Group	Other	Gap	Group	Other	Gap
Hispanic	86%	88%	-2%	89%	90%	-1%	88%	90%	-2%
Native American	83%	89%	-6%	86%	91%	-5%	84%	90%	-6%
Asian	90%	88%	2%	91%	90%	1%	92%	89%	3%
Black/African American	87%	88%	-1%	89%	90%	-1%	88%	90%	-2%
Nat HA/Other P.I.	86%	88%	-2%	89%	90%	-1%	91%	90%	1%
White	89%	86%	3%	91%	88%	3%	90%	87%	3%

Conclusion

As we continue to align our monitoring efforts with the school board’s updated Results Policies and the district’s Strategic Plan, we are also improving the tools we use to measure progress. Beginning this fall, our new in-house student, staff, and family surveys will provide more targeted and relevant data that directly supports board-defined indicators — ensuring we are measuring what matters most.

In parallel, we are developing a more streamlined system for collecting and analyzing attendance data across the district. This system will allow school and district leaders to more easily monitor attendance trends by student group, identify where disparities persist, and evaluate which strategies are most effective. Together, these improvements will enhance our ability to make data-informed decisions that support equitable and engaged learning environments for all students.