RIDE and Edia Launch First-of-its-Kind Statewide Attendance Partnership to Better Engage Students and Families

Published on Monday, August 24, 2026

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Building on last week's release of statewide attendance data showing continued improvement in Rhode Island schools, Governor Dan McKee, Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green, and the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) today announced a three-year, first-of-its-kind, statewide partnership with Edia, a leading AI attendance platform for K-12 education, to help schools reach families faster when a student is missing school.

When a student is absent, the Edia platform starts a two-way text conversation with a parent or caregiver in their preferred language, powered by AI, to better understand any barriers to attendance. Edia helps connect, engage, and support families by answering routine questions and facilitating communication. When additional support is needed, Edia coordinates communication with school leaders and attendance staff, allowing teams to focus on building relationships and providing targeted support to students and families.

"Daily attendance is fundamental to student success, and Rhode Island is committed to providing schools with the tools, resources, and support they need to promote consistent attendance," said Governor Dan McKee. "Through our innovative data tools and dashboards, Rhode Island has emerged as a national leader in addressing chronic absenteeism and strengthening student engagement. By putting another valuable resource in the hands of our school communities, we are continuing to lead the way spreading the message that: Attendance Matters."

"Rhode Island's nation-leading progress in reducing chronic absenteeism is the result of intentional investments in innovative tools that help schools connect with students and families," said Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green. "By leveraging modern communication technology and strengthening engagement, we can address the root causes of absenteeism and ensure more students are in school every day. We are grateful to Edia for recognizing the importance of attendance and partnering with us to help sustain this work across Rhode Island."

"Edia is the #1 AI attendance solution for K-12 school districts. We are excited to bring this innovative program to all Rhode Island schools in support of Governor McKee's goal to reduce chronic absenteeism below 10%," said Joe Philleo, CEO of Edia. "Rhode Island is leading the way in improving student outcomes."

As part of the partnership, RAND is conducting an independent evaluation of the initiative funded by Overdeck Family Foundation. Sixty-seven schools across ten districts are taking part this fall at no cost to districts or families. Schools were selected at random to begin using Edia in year one so that RAND can measure the program's effect on attendance. RAND will publish the results and make them freely available to the public.

In years two and three, Edia will be available at no cost to every school in Rhode Island.

Earlier this month, as part of the Attendance Matters RI initiative, RIDE released attendance data for school year 2025-26 which showed that statewide chronic absenteeism dropped by 2.4 percentage points down to 19.7%, marking a 14.4 percentage point decrease from the height of the pandemic and returning the state very close to pre-pandemic baselines. This decline equates to over 4.4 million instructional hours recovered for Rhode Island students.

About Edia

Edia builds innovative AI-powered software for K-12 school districts. More than 1,000,000 students and families across the United States use Edia to improve outcomes for attendance, mathematics, and graduation rates.