Gov. McKee and education leaders kick off 2025 Attendance Matters RI campaign

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — Governor Dan McKee and education leaders gathered at the Rhode Island State House on Tuesday to kick off the 2025 Attendance Matters RI campaign.

According to a spokesperson for Gov. McKee, the initiative aims to increase student attendance in the classroom.

At the event, the governor announced new “attendance and academic achievement guidance” to help students who fall behind in their classwork because of frequent absences.

McKee said Rhode Island saw over 142,000 fewer absences last year alone.

“Since the height of the pandemic when chronic absenteeism peaked, we’ve boosted attendance and recovered more than 3.7 million hours of learning as a result… that’s a big deal. But we are not stopping there, and the fact is, students who are chronically absent fall behind by more than 20 percentage points compared to their peers who regularly attend school, so we are going to continue to put the focus on the idea that, with more support, more data, and more tools, students are going to succeed at a higher rate,” McKee said.

McKee also announced a new online attendance heat map to recognize when and where absences happen.