States / Rhode Island

Chronic absence in Rhode Island

Where things stand, what state rules ask of each role, and what is changing. For school and district leaders.

School year 2025-26

19.7%

of students were chronically absent¹

Chronically absent means miss 10% or more school days during the year (or 2 days per month).²

U.S. rate: 22.6% (2024-25)⁹

Five-year trend

Rhode Island, year by year

Rhode Island chronic absence by school year
School year	Chronically absent
2018-19	19%
2021-22	34.1%
2022-23	28.9%
2023-24	24.7%
2024-25	22.1%
2025-26	19.7%

Dashed bars mark years the state did not publish a rate.

Where things stand

The numbers

In 2025-26, 19.7% of Rhode Island students were chronically absent, down about 2.4 percentage points from the year before. The state calls this the 4th consecutive year of decline¹.
That is 14.4 percentage points below the pandemic-era peak of 34.1% in 2021-22^1,4.
The state says this brings it very close to pre-pandemic levels; it put the pre-pandemic rate at around 19%^6,4.
The state's accountability manual says chronic absence is most common among low-income students, and that the youngest students (pre-kindergarten and kindergarten) and the oldest (high school) tend to have the highest rates⁷.
Students who were not chronically absent outperformed chronically absent peers by 16.9 to 25.1 percentage points on state tests. Students chronically absent in 2022-23 who then improved their attendance met state test (RICAS) expectations in 2025-26 at rates 15.8 points higher in ELA and 19.8 points higher in math than students chronically absent four years in a row⁸.
Rhode Island's 2024-25 rate of 22.1% was just below the 22.6% that AEI reports across reporting states for 2024-25, which AEI labels 2025^3,9.

Requirements by role

What state rules ask of each role

Teachers

Each district must ensure its schools have a clearly delineated system for ensuring compulsory attendance, including procedures for noting daily absenteeism and investigating unexcused absences. The regulation's wording describes this system for children six to sixteen¹⁶.
State law makes the public school responsible for regular attendance data monitoring of all students and early identification of emergent truant behavior¹⁰.
Since June 26, 2023, when a school committee's policies excuse absences for a sport or any other extracurricular activity, those policies are deemed to also excuse absences for attending or participating in agricultural fairs as listed or defined by the state Department of Environmental Management¹⁵.

Counselors

The superintendent may waive compulsory attendance only upon proof that the student has an alternative learning plan for getting a high school diploma or its equivalent. The plan is developed, and amended if needed, with the student, a school guidance counselor, the principal and at least one parent or guardian, and submitted to the superintendent for approval¹⁰.
If the superintendent does not approve an alternative learning plan, the parent or guardian may appeal to the school committee, and then to the commissioner of education¹⁰.
Districts must give students who are homebound, hospitalized, or able to attend only intermittently for medical reasons enough academic support, including tutoring if necessary, for regular academic progress. Supports must start when the district becomes aware that the student's sustained or intermittent absence will cause a significant regression in academic progress¹⁶.

Attendance team

When a student in kindergarten through grade nine does not report to school on a regularly scheduled school day and school staff have no indication that the parent or guardian knows, school personnel or volunteers organized by the school committee (or by the person in charge of a private school) must make a reasonable effort to notify the parent or guardian by telephone. They are immune from civil or criminal liability for giving or failing to give this notice¹⁴.
Before referring truant students to family court, schools must do their due diligence to make sure all interventions have taken place. This includes, but is not limited to, consulting the parent or guardian and coordinating with the student's school-identified support team, such as the IEP, behavioral support or attendance team¹⁰.
Truant officers, under the direction of the school committee, inquire into all compulsory attendance cases and may file complaints for violations, with police help on request. Under state regulations, their duties include referring truant students to appropriate school support services and procedures for enforcing a case through civil action in Family Court^12,16.
A parent or other person in control of a child must make the child attend. For each neglect of this duty, the person faces a fine of up to $50 for each day or part of a day missed; if the total is more than 30 school days in a school year, the person can, upon conviction, be imprisoned up to six months, fined up to $500, or both. These penalties do not apply when one of the exceptions in the law is proven¹⁰.

Principals & districts

Every child who is six by September 1 of the school year, or is enrolled in kindergarten, and has not turned eighteen must regularly attend public school on all days and hours school is in session. Attendance is not required if the person charged proves the child attended, for the required time, a private day school approved by the commissioner or at-home instruction approved by the local school committee, was accepted into an accredited postsecondary program, has a superintendent's waiver, had a physical or mental condition making attendance inexpedient or impracticable, or was excluded from school under another law or regulation¹⁰.
Each school committee must appoint one or more truant officers every December, with the powers of special constables, and set their pay. Two or more cities or towns may share truant officers, and a committee that appoints other employees on a different tenure may appoint truant officers on a similar tenure instead of annually¹¹.
Compulsory attendance cases go to family court, except in cities and towns that choose to hear them in a juvenile hearing board they have set up, after telling the family court's chief judge in writing. As an alternative, the school committee may file a civil complaint seeking an injunction in truancy cases, without first using the regular enforcement process or showing irreparable injury¹³.
No school may use a student's truancy or absenteeism as the sole basis for an out-of-school suspension¹⁰.

Recent changes

What changed lately

Effective June 26, 2023, school committee policies that excuse absences for sports or other extracurricular activities are deemed to also excuse absences for agricultural fairs listed or defined by the state Department of Environmental Management¹⁵.
Because of the pandemic, the state raised the chronic absence cut scores in its school ratings for all grade spans. For 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25, schools earned 3 points under 15.0%, 2 points from 15.0% to under 30.0%, and 1 point at 30.0% or more; the state plan also gives 1 point when no data are reported^7,17.
On August 24, 2026, the state announced a three-year statewide partnership with an AI attendance texting platform that starts a two-way text conversation with a parent or caregiver, in their preferred language, when a student is absent¹⁸.
Sixty-seven schools across ten districts began this fall at no cost, chosen at random so researchers can measure the program's effect on attendance; in years two and three the tool will be free to every school in the state¹⁸.

Accountability

How the state holds schools to it

Student chronic absenteeism is one of eight school quality or student success indicators in Rhode Island's ESSA accountability system. In star ratings it is grouped with the exceeds-expectations indicators, teacher chronic absenteeism and student suspensions⁷.
The indicator counts K-12 students who miss 10% or more of the days they are enrolled and are enrolled in the school for at least 90 days. Excused and unexcused absences count the same. Rates are reported for schools, districts and student groups with at least 10 students enrolled⁷.
Each school, district and student group that meets the minimum of 20 students earns one to three points. Typically, elementary and middle schools earn 3 points under 5.0%, 2 points from 5.0% to under 15.0%, and 1 point at 15.0% or more; high schools earn 3 points under 10.0%, 2 from 10.0% to under 20.0%, and 1 at 20.0% or more. K-12 and 7-12 schools use cut scores set in between⁷.
The state adjusted these cut scores in 2022, 2023 and 2024 and raised them for all grades from 2022 through 2025 to account for COVID-19⁷.
Rhode Island is the first state to include teacher absenteeism in its accountability system. A teacher counts as chronically absent when absent 10% or more of their days employed by the school, not counting professional development, field trips and other off-campus activities with students, pre-approved absences of more than 5 consecutive days, non-school days, and half days⁷.
The state publishes a daily attendance leaderboard showing, for each school, the number and percentage of students on track to be chronically absent, and a calendar heat map that tracks daily attendance rates statewide in near-real time³.
In the 2026 accountability results, which include attendance among other indicators, 56% of Rhode Island schools earned a 3-star rating or higher⁸.

What’s working

Efforts with results

Providence, under state intervention from 2019 until June 30, 2026, saw its chronic absence rate fall from 57.1% in 2021-22 to 25.3% in 2025-26, a 31.8 percentage point drop, per state data. The state says this is the largest reduction since the pandemic peak of any traditional district^1,4,8.
Central Falls, also under state intervention, saw its rate fall from 48.2% in 2021-22 to 22.2% in 2025-26, per state data. In the last year of their state intervention, both districts reached their all-time lowest chronic absence rates, per the state¹.
In 2026 the state recognized five schools in its "5-5-5 Club" for cutting chronic absenteeism by at least five percentage points while raising both ELA and math performance by at least five percentage points⁸.

Working on chronic absence in Rhode Island?

Agenteach helps counselors, teachers, and attendance teams follow up with students who are missing school, and keeps a record of every step.

Book time Become a pilot school

Sources

Rhode Island Department of Education. Governor McKee, Infante-Green Announce 4th Consecutive Year of Declining Chronic Absenteeism Statewide (press release) (opens in a new tab) (2026-08-17)
Rhode Island Department of Education. Reducing Chronic Absence (opens in a new tab) (accessed 2026-10-13)
Rhode Island Department of Education. Attendance Matters RI (opens in a new tab) (accessed 2026-10-13)
Rhode Island Department of Education. McKee, Infante-Green, and RIDE Announce 244,000+ Fewer Absences in 23-24 School Year (press release) (opens in a new tab) (2024-08-06)
American Enterprise Institute (Nat Malkus). From Attendance Crisis to Chronic Condition? Tracking Post-Pandemic Chronic Absenteeism into 2025, Table A3. State-Reported Chronic Absenteeism Data, by State, School Years 2017-25 (columns 2017 to 2025 by spring year; 2019 = the 2018-19 school year; rates rounded to whole percent) (opens in a new tab) (2026-06-30)
Rhode Island Department of Education. RIDE Distributing 140,000 Attendance Tracking Calendars to Students Across Rhode Island (press release) (opens in a new tab) (2026-09-21)
Rhode Island Department of Education. Rhode Island Statewide Accountability System Technical Manual, 2025, v1.0 (opens in a new tab) (2025)
Rhode Island Department of Education. 2026 Rhode Island School Assessment and Accountability Results (press release) (opens in a new tab) (2026-10-09)
American Enterprise Institute. From Attendance Crisis to Chronic Condition? Tracking Post-Pandemic Chronic Absenteeism into 2025 (opens in a new tab) (2026-06-30)
State of Rhode Island General Assembly (R.I. Gen. Laws). R.I. Gen. Laws § 16-19-1, Attendance required (opens in a new tab) (current text, accessed 2026-10-13)
State of Rhode Island General Assembly (R.I. Gen. Laws). R.I. Gen. Laws § 16-19-3, Appointment and compensation of truant officers (opens in a new tab) (current text, accessed 2026-10-13)
State of Rhode Island General Assembly (R.I. Gen. Laws). R.I. Gen. Laws § 16-19-4, Prosecution of violations (opens in a new tab) (current text, accessed 2026-10-13)
State of Rhode Island General Assembly (R.I. Gen. Laws). R.I. Gen. Laws § 16-19-8, Jurisdiction of family court (opens in a new tab) (current text, accessed 2026-10-13)
State of Rhode Island General Assembly (R.I. Gen. Laws). R.I. Gen. Laws § 16-19-10, Notification of pupil absence (opens in a new tab) (current text, accessed 2026-10-13)
State of Rhode Island General Assembly (R.I. Gen. Laws). R.I. Gen. Laws § 16-2-37, Excused absences to include participation in agricultural fairs (opens in a new tab) (current text, accessed 2026-10-13)
Rhode Island Council on Elementary and Secondary Education. Basic Education Program regulations, 200-RICR-20-10-1 (opens in a new tab) (2023-03 (file))
Rhode Island Department of Education. Rhode Island ESSA Consolidated State Plan (2024, signed) (opens in a new tab) (2024)
Rhode Island Department of Education. RIDE and Edia Launch First-of-its-Kind Statewide Attendance Partnership to Better Engage Students and Families (press release) (opens in a new tab) (2026-08-24)