Rhode Island KIDS COUNT Reports Chronic Absence District by District

Rhode Island KIDS COUNT has added a page to its annual Fact Book featuring chronic absence rates for all the state's school districts.

The analysis found that 10 percent of students in kindergarten through third grade were chronically absent in the 2008-2009 school year. The percent climbs to 16 percent in the state's core cities, with Providence, Central Falls and Newport having the highest rates. At the same time, the average daily attendance rate at schools in the core cities was 93 percent. This finding reinforces the reality that ADA figures can mask a problem with chronic absence.

The addition of this indicator was inspired by the publication of  Present, Engaged and Accounted For  which first raised awareness of educators and community groups in Rhode Island to the importance of tracking the numbers and working with schools and families to reduce chronic absence.

“There is so much emphasis on reading at grade level,” Elizabeth Burke Bryant, executive director of Rhode Island KIDS COUNT, said in a recent article in the Providence Journal. “We started to get practical. We asked, ‘Who is in school and who isn’t? Why not? How can we share strategies and improve attendance?’ ”