Superintendents and state officials are launching statewide campaigns and communications technology to cut chronic absenteeism rates. Are they working?
A statewide effort in Rhode Island is showing signs of improvement, according to The Valley Breeze. The state Department of Education launched the “Attendance Matters” initiative during the 2023-24 school year, a robust public messaging campaign, and professional training and guidance for teachers.
The Cumberland School Department, with more than 4,700 students, saw a 4% improvement in chronic absenteeism rates in the past year, The Valley Breeze reports.
Meanwhile, Rhode Island’s Lincoln Public Schools is using student attendance data to develop targeted action plans, Assistant Superintendent Sara Monaco told the news outlet.
“Every school in Lincoln has established a dedicated attendance team that actively monitors attendance data and develops targeted action plans to support students,” Monaco said. “These strategies range from school-wide initiatives designed to foster engagement and excitement about learning to individualized support plans that help students attend school consistently and arrive ready to succeed.”
Across the state, research suggests districts are making strong gains since the launch of Attendance Matters. Still, results remain uneven.
Approximately 22.1% of students were chronically absent during the 2024-25 school year, a 12% improvement from 2021-22. However, rates have yet to reach pre-pandemic levels, which hovered around 19%, according to the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council.
In New York, Dunkirk City School District Superintendent Brian Swatland touted the district’s improvement in attendance in a recent interview with Observer Today. Swatland noted there’s been an 18% decrease in chronic absenteeism in the past two years.
Thanks to an app called Edia, which allows the district to share messages with parents about their child’s attendance, one in five students is now chronically absent, down from nearly 40%. The district also relies on dedicated attendance committees in each school.
“We were paying more attention to [absenteeism] and made it a priority,” Swatland told Observer Today. “It’s also leading to an increase in student achievement data.”
Improvement trends apply elsewhere. Since 2023-24, attendance rates have improved slightly from 92.87% to 93.63% in 146 districts examined by SchoolStatus, a K12 software provider. During the first half of the current school year, chronic absenteeism dropped to 18.98%, which is well below the national average at 23%.
Here’s what stands out about the districts sampled in the research:
- Analyzing attendance and tardy patterns within the first 60 instructional days, allowing leaders to intervene before patterns solidify.
- In 2024-25, attendance improved by 34.2% after one mailed intervention, reinforcing the impact of early outreach.
- Families who engage in the first weeks of school are more than twice as likely to remain engaged throughout the year.
Read the full report here.
