Chronic absenteeism poses a persistent challenge for states. Nationwide, the chronic absence rate nearly doubled from 15% in 2019 to 28% in 2023, with subsequent studies suggesting that high absenteeism rates persist  through today. This trend has negative consequences for students and for society. In the short term, students who miss school develop learning gaps, show diminished academic performance, and are at higher risk of disciplinary actions. Over the long haul, chronically absent students are seven times more likely to drop out of school, which undermines their future earning potential and costs taxpayers over $272,000 per student in lost taxes and increased reliance on public services (such as public assistance and incarceration).

Arts education offers a powerful antidote to absenteeism, as vividly illustrated by new research released by the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts (RISCA). Chronic Absenteeism and Arts Participation in Rhode Island Public Schools: A Statistical Review was a collaboration between RISCA, the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) and Quadrant Research. Drawing on longitudinal RIDE data compiled through the Arts Education Data Project, the study examined information about school attendance and arts education from the 2017-2018 school year through 2024-2025. It included data from middle schoolers as well as high school students.

The results show a strong relationship between sustained arts engagement—especially through music—and improved school attendance.

• Students taking just one year of middle school music had a 7% lower chronic absenteeism rate than their peers.
• Students with three consecutive years of middle school music had a 23% lower chronic absenteeism rate.
• Students taking four consecutive years of high school art courses had 19% lower chronic absenteeism.
• Students taking four consecutive years of high school music had 45% lower chronic absenteeism.

When researchers examined demographic data, they found comparable results across economic groups. The positive effects of arts education were most pronounced for Black, Hispanic and multiracial students—the demographic cohorts with the highest baseline rates of chronic absenteeism.

The principal researcher, Bob Morrison, writes, “If you’re looking for a lever to pull on chronic absenteeism—and every state is—sustained arts participation warrants serious attention.… Arts education needs to be part of every state’s chronic absenteeism strategy. Not as an afterthought or an add-on. As one of the levers we know shows up in the data.”

To raise student, parent and school awareness of the findings, RIDE and RISCA have launched The Art of Attendance, a youth art contest through which K-12 students use the visual arts to explore what inspires them to show up, connect, learn and thrive at school.

For more information about state arts agency arts education strategies, contact NASAA.