In the last school year, Rhode Island public schools saw a decrease in chronic absenteeism rates for the third year in a row, amid new statewide programming aimed at bolstering attendance.
Chronic absenteeism — or a student missing about 18 school days or more each year — in the state dropped 2.6 percentage points to 22.1% during the 2024-25 school year, compared to the 24.7% that Rhode Island saw the year prior.
The Providence Public School District’s chronic absenteeism rate — 29.3% — remained higher than the state’s figures, but also saw a 6.9 percentage-point decrease in chronic absenteeism between the 2023-24 and the 2024-25 school years, one of the steepest declines in the state…