Middletown Schools on Low End in Absenteeism

Middletown schools fell on the lower end of the scale in what the state Department of Education terms "chronic absenteeism," meaning students who miss more than 18 days of the school year.

WPRI Channel 12 recently reported that 17 percent of all students in Rhode Island were classified as chronically absent during the 2011-12 school year, with four Providence high schools reporting more than 50 percent of students on the list.

Locally, Middletown High School recorded 10.88 percent chronic absenteeism, followed by Forest Avenue School with 6.96 percent, and Joseph H. Gaudet School with 6.57.

The other local schools had fewer than 6 percent of their students in the chronically absent category — Aquidneck School [5.85], and Joseph H. Gaudet Learning Academy [5.15].

See the complete results here.

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Why do you think Middletown has such good results in getting kids to attend school? How do you think school attendance can be improved?

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