Rhode Island Department of Education Launches #AttendanceMattersRI Professional Learning Opportunity, Distributes 140,000 Magnetic Calendars Statewide to Encourage Consistent School Attendance

Published on Monday, November 25, 2024

PROVIDENCE, RI – In alignment with the #AttendanceMattersRI campaign, Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green and the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) today announced new initiatives in the statewide effort to support school and district leaders, families, and community stakeholders in combatting chronic absenteeism and improving student achievement in Rhode Island. The agency, with support from the Papitto Opportunity Connection, is distributing more than 140,000 magnetic calendars to Rhode Island school districts that will help students and families track daily attendance. Additionally, RIDE has launched a comprehensive, free professional learning course “Preventing Chronic Absenteeism,” supporting school leaders, district administrators, and attendance team members in the use of research, data, and tools to prevent and address chronic student absenteeism, which is defined as missing 10% of the school year, equivalent to 18 days per year or two days per month. 

These efforts follow a notable decline in chronic absenteeism during the 2023-2024 school year and the recent release of new and enhanced data visualizations that capture the negative and compounding effect of chronic absenteeism on academic achievement and highlight chronic absenteeism data down to the community level. Through the first 40 days of school of the 2024-2025 school year, Rhode Island had reduced the number of total student absences by 10.7% compared to the same point in time last year. Diligent efforts are underway on the school, district, and state level, with RIDE’s data dashboards and on-the-ground efforts being spotlighted in Chalkbeat, the National Assessment Governing Board, FutureEd at Georgetown University, the White House, with United Kingdom education leaders, and beyond.   

“Every day a student is in school is a day they have the opportunity to learn, grow, and succeed. The #AttendanceMattersRI campaign is a critical part of ensuring our students remain engaged and on track for their future goals,” said Governor Dan McKee. “Through these new RIDE resources and the dedicated work of educators and community partners, we are making it clear to families across Rhode Island: regular attendance is the foundation of achievement. My administration looks forward to continued statewide partnership around this important effort.” 

“Attendance is a powerful predictor of academic success, and it requires support from the entire community. There is no gesture too small—whether it’s a morning greeting, a reminder to be on time, or encouragement from a neighbor—every effort contributes to helping students stay engaged and focused on their education,” said Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green. “Through professional development, interactive data dashboards, attendance tracking calendars, mental health efforts, and more, Rhode Island is committed to addressing chronic absenteeism with both innovative resources and community-driven solutions. We encourage schools, districts, and the community to take advantage of our new resources and continue to spread the message that #AttendanceMattersRI.” 

The magnetic, easy-to-read calendars, shared digitally at the beginning of the school year, serve as both a visual reminder and a helpful tool for families, encouraging students to attend school every day. With sections dedicated to tracking attendance, the calendars help students and families take an active role in establishing a habit of consistent attendance, which is a key factor in academic success. The calendars are available to school districts in both English and Spanish, with additional languages to come. On the district level, Rhode Island education communities continue to lead by example and prioritize attendance through various efforts including Providence Public Schools’ Attendance Heroes campaign.  

“The Papitto Opportunity Connection enthusiastically supports this critical initiative, which aligns directly with POC’s mission to support educational opportunities that create pathways to future success,” said POC Founder Barbara Papitto. “Attending school every day is not only crucial for students’ academic success, but also allows students for social development and to build lasting relationships with educators, peers and mentors.” 

The professional learning course, developed by RIDE and hosted on BRIDGE-RI, will provide participants with a comprehensive understanding of chronic absenteeism, its root causes, and how to leverage attendance teams to create effective student support plans within Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) structures. Participants, which may include district administrators, school principals, educators, and other school staff, will receive two professional learning units upon the completion of the course.  

“As an educator, I've seen firsthand how chronic absenteeism impacts students’ academic progress and engagement. This professional learning course by RIDE, along with our #AttendanceMattersRI campaign, equips us with practical tools to address absenteeism and support students in staying connected to their education,” said 2025 Rhode Island Teacher of the Year Milissa O’Neil. “The training will strengthen our teams and help us build targeted, effective attendance support plans so every student can benefit from a stable and thriving educational experience.” 

As part of its ongoing efforts, RIDE continues to lead the #AttendanceMattersRI campaign to raise awareness about the importance of regular attendance. During the 2023-2024 school year, 89% of school districts improved their chronic absenteeism rates, some – including Providence and Newport – significantly. Statewide chronic absenteeism fell to 24.7%, representing a nearly 10-point decline from the height of the pandemic.  

Chronically absent students, on average, performed lower than their not chronically absent peers by between 18 and 25 percentage points on 2024 assessments. These performance gaps are predominantly consistent with previous chronic absenteeism performance gaps reported for the first time in 2023. This year, RIDE provided an analysis of student chronic absenteeism and achievement trends that reveal long-term chronic absenteeism has a compounding, negative impact on student performance and widens performance gaps. For example, in RICAS ELA, the performance gap between students who were chronically absent that year and students who were not was 18 percentage points. For students chronically absent 3 years versus students who were not within that same time period, the achievement gap increased to 25.4 percentage points. However, data shows students who were once chronically absent are able to get back on track academically. Looking at urbanicity, performance gaps for chronically absent students are greatest in Rhode Island’s suburban schools accounting for 18.1 percentage points in RICAS ELA and 24.3 percentage points in RICAS math. These large performance gaps in suburban districts continue at the high school level, with chronically absent students in the suburbs performing on average 25 percentage points lower than their not-chronically absent peers on the SAT.  

Visit www.AttendanceMattersRI.org/resources to better understand why attendance matters, follow daily tracking data or find printable toolkits to leverage within school and district efforts. RIDE encourages all municipal, business, and community leaders to get actively engaged in efforts to reduce chronic absenteeism in their respective communities. 

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