Providence – ��

A Community in Grief Gathers to Hold Light in ‘One of Providence’s Darkest Times’

Christopher Shea — Tue, 16 Dec 2025 15:30:00 +0000

This article was originally published in

PROVIDENCE — It was supposed to be a joyful event. But a Christmas tree and menorah lighting scheduled for late Sunday afternoon at Lippitt Memorial Park was turned into a vigil for the victims of Saturday’s shooting at Brown University.

Despite the mid-20-degree weather and falling snow in Providence, over 200 people gathered to light candles to honor the two students who were killed and nine others who were wounded inside the Barus and Holley engineering building.

Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for �� Newsletter

Councilor Sue AnderBois began the holiday event at the park near the Pawtucket line last year.

“Instead, we are gathered here to share light with one another in one of Providence’s darkest times,” AnderBois told the crowd. “We’re here together to be together and to support.”

AnderBois was joined by several of Rhode Island’s elected officials including Gov. Dan McKee, who earlier in the afternoon ordered flags at all state buildings and facilities to be lowered to half-staff as a sign of respect for the victims of the shooting.

McKee did not speak during the vigil, nor did most elected officials in attendance. Remarks during the 10-minute ceremony were given by AnderBois, Mayor Brett Smiley and Sarah Mack, senior rabbi of Temple Beth-El near Wayland Square in Providence.

Smiley, who converted to Judaism last year, invoked the first night of Hanukkah in his remarks, noting that the initial lighting of the menorah represents a small spark that grows into a bright light by the end of the eight-night festival. He said he hoped the vigil would be “the first little flicker for our community to start to heal and get better together.”

“It’s going to be a long road, but what I know about this community is that we will be here for one another,” Smiley said.

Mack similarly spoke of the need for Rhode Islanders to come together as a way to provide light in these dark times.

“We can use our light to kindle other lights — to care for one another,” she said. “That is how we get through this dark moment.”

After Mack concluded her speech, the crowd spontaneously began to sing “Amazing Grace.” Officials had no further press briefings scheduled for Sunday night on the status of their investigation.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Rhode Island Current maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janine L. Weisman for questions: info@rhodeislandcurrent.com.

Opinion: For Some Kids, Getting to School Is Really Hard. They Still Need to Go Every Day

Hedy N. Chang and Elaine Allensworth — Fri, 19 Sep 2025 16:30:00 +0000

As students head back to school, chronic absence rates remain much higher than they were before COVID: Nearly students nationwide miss more than 10% of school days. Low scores on the 2024 underscore that high levels of absenteeism continue to contribute to the decline in student performance, and an of past NAEP results shows that students who miss more school scored far lower than their peers who do not.

As an in longstanding partnership with public schools and the of a nonprofit organization focused specifically on attendance, we’re hearing questions from educators, district leaders, families and policymakers about whether the old standards for attendance are still reasonable. Do students still need to go to school every day? Is it fair to ask educators to work on improving attendance when so many barriers exist outside of school?

Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for �� Newsletter

Given what we know from research and from schools across the country, backing away from a strong focus on chronic absence places children’s well-being in jeopardy, because attendance matters as much now as ever.

Early evidence from a UChicago Consortium on School Research study that is underway shows that the relationships among attendance and grades, test scores and test gains remain as strong as before COVID-19. This suggests that, despite all the extra supports that have been put into schools since the pandemic, chronic absence is a key factor in poor performance on exams across the country. This is for every age and demographic group.

These findings affirm decades of research showing that school attendance matters for students’ academic success, holistic development and well-being. Children in pre-K-2 who were chronically absent for several years by grade 3. Attendance also is important in the elementary and middle grades for students’ eventual , ability to pass their classes and graduate. And it’s not just the absent students who are affected; the content and pace of the classroom and even how adults and resources across the school are deployed can be detrimental to those who do show up.

Beyond academics, school is a key space for young people’s development — building social connections and skills with peers and adults, exploring their interests through classes and extracurriculars, and accessing resources, whether directly in school or through referrals from teachers. Students who are absent frequently miss out.

Attendance rises when schools focus on fostering students’ development. Those with strong — where young people feel safe and supported and teachers collaborate with one another and with families — have higher attendance rates than other schools. No wonder boosting students’ is seen as a to chronic absence. When students and see their school as a place of community, stability, safety and support, they are more likely to come consistently, even when there are challenges. Teachers and school staff get a clearer sense of what families need, and how to help. They are more likely to seek assistance when they need it and work with to find solutions that work for them. In turn, school leaders and staff get a clearer sense of what families need, and how to help.

Addressing chronic absence can feel like an overwhelming, or even an impossible, problem because it is affected by many aspects of a young person’s life. Yet, we’ve seen schools make substantial progress when they focus on key data and supports. Chicago moved ninth grade attendance rates from 80% to 91% from 2008 to 2018 after showed absenteeism in the first year of high school was the driving factor behind low graduation rates. The district provided schools with real-time data on ninth graders’ attendance and grades, and principals and teachers were held accountable for a metric they could actually move, while being helped with by organizations like the Network for College Success.

Nathaniel Green Middle School in Providence reduced its chronic absence rate from in three years after Principal Jackson Reilly organized students into cohorts taught by teams of teachers so they could build in time for relationships among students, teachers, and students and their teachers. This created a sense of community that brought back joy into the classroom. They then used data on who was missing 10% or more of school to identify which students needed extra outreach and support.

At Compass Berclair Charter School in Memphis, absenteeism dropped from 28% to 2% between 2021-22 and 2023-24. Principal Camie Cowan used morning meetings with all students and monthly family check-ins to strengthen relationships. Like Nathaniel Green, it also used chronic absence data to identify and offer assistance to students still struggling with attendance barriers.

Kansas City Kansas Public Schools have reduced chronic absence districtwide from over 50% in 2021-22 to less than 35%, and leaders anticipate further reductions in the coming school year. The district has moved away from taking a punitive approach to absences; a key component of its success has been a focus on relationship building. Every school has a team that reviews data as well as develops and implements a year-long plan of action that emphasizes universal strategies (morning meetings or restorative circles) along with targeted supports (positive phone calls and mentoring).

These examples demonstrate that schools can have a big impact on students’ attendance rates. The key is building relationships with young people and their families — asking students and families what motivates them to show up even when it isn’t easy. Are the barriers an unsafe path to school or a lack of access to health care? Is the student struggling academically or being bullied? Schools can use these answers to partner with students and families to find solutions.

What educators in schools do matters — a lot. Progress is not just possible for improving attendance rates in schools; it’s critical. Children’s current and future well-being depend on it.

Kept in the Dark: Inside the Providence Schools Ransomware Attack

Mark Keierleber — Mon, 03 Mar 2025 11:30:00 +0000

Kept in the Dark is an in-depth investigation into more than 300 K-12 school cyberattacks over the last five years, revealing the forces that leave students, families and district staff unaware that their sensitive data was exposed. Use the search feature below to learn how cybercrimes — and subsequent data breaches — have played out in your own community. Here’s what we uncovered about a massive ransomware attack on the Providence, Rhode Island school district.

After the Providence, Rhode Island, school district fell victim to a September 2024 cyberattack by the Medusa ransomware gang, school officials said an ongoing investigation found “no evidence that any personal information for students has been impacted.”

Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for �� Newsletter

An investigation by ��, including a review of stolen files captured in the 217-gigabyte leak, indicates otherwise. Sexual misconduct allegations involving both students and teachers, children’s special education records and their vaccine histories were posted online after Providence Public Schools did not pay the cybercriminals’ $1 million ransom demand.

The district’s failure to acknowledge that students’ records had been exposed — even after being informed otherwise by �� — means that parents and students were likely unaware that their private affairs had entered the public domain.

In October 2024, Providence schools notified 12,000 current and former employees that their personal information, such as their names, addresses and Social Security numbers, had been compromised. But the letter never makes mention of students’ sensitive records.

In response to ��’s findings in mid-October 2024, a district spokesperson didn’t acknowledge that students’ sensitive information was compromised. He said the district “has been able to confirm that some [of its] files” were accessed by an “unauthorized, third party,” and that “security consultants are going through a comprehensive review” to determine whether the leaked files contain personal information “for individuals beyond current and former staff members.”

Meanwhile, in an unsolicited phone call to ��, a state education department spokesperson appeared to contradict that, saying “no one had actually gone in to see the files.”

Photo illustration of Medusa’s blog counting down to how much time the Providence Public School District has to meet its $1 million ransom demand. (Eamonn Fitzmaurice/��).

Included in the leak is the 2024-25 Individualized Education Program for a 4-year-old boy who pre-K educators observed had “significant difficulty sustaining attention to task” and who “wandered around the classroom setting without purpose.” Another special education plan notes a 3-year-old boy “randomly roamed the room humming the tune to ‘Wheels on the Bus,’ pushed chairs and threw objects.”

A single spreadsheet lists the names of some 20,000 students and their demographic information, including disability status, home addresses, contact information and parents’ names. Another contains information about their race and the languages spoken at home.

A “termination list” included in the breach notes the names of more than 600 district employees who were let go between 2002 and 2024, including an art teacher who “retired in lieu” of being fired and a middle school English teacher who “resigned per agreement.” Another set of documents reveals a fifth-grade teacher’s request — and denial — for workplace accommodations for obsessive compulsive disorder, anxiety and panic attacks that make her “less effective as an educator if I am not supported with the accommodations because I can not sleep at night.”

A Providence Public School District student’s vaccine record. �� cropped the photo above to remove the student’s name. (Screenshot)

In one leaked April 2024 email, a senior central office administrator sought a concealed handgun permit from the state attorney general, noting they “have a safe at work as well as one at home.”

Following an investigation published by �� and in October, the district to families acknowledging that students’ personal information, such as vaccine records and special education details, were exposed in the attack.

In response to an inquiry from ��, a district spokesperson said in a November statement that educators remain “committed to transparency and the security of personal information.”

“During these types of incidents, districts typically start with limited information on what occurred and then gain more information over the course of the investigation,” the statement continues. “As we navigated the initial uncertainty of the situation, PPSD prioritized taking real-time action and communicating with all stakeholders as we gathered more information.”

Providence Mayor Warns of Tax Hikes and Service Cuts Amid School Budget Battle

Christopher Shea — Thu, 12 Dec 2024 17:30:00 +0000

This article was originally published in

The city of Providence has halted all discretionary spending and imposed a hiring freeze to comply with a court mandate to fund the city’s public schools — with the potential for cuts to municipal services and even a property tax hike, Mayor Brett Smiley told reporters gathered in his office Tuesday.

The warning about tough choices ahead comes three days after a Providence Superior Court judge (RIDE), which is withholding millions in state aid to Providence until the city appropriates local dollars to fund its public schools, which have been under state control for the past five years.

“The decision the court handed down put the city’s finances at risk,” Smiley said. “And we’re going to have to make very difficult decisions in the days ahead.”

Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for �� Newsletter

That could include cuts to all grant programs for the community libraries, housing support, and parks programs. Smiley said his office would also consider rolling back police patrols at PVDFest and other holiday celebrations.

“That will all have to stop,” he said.

Rhode Island Superior Court Judge Jeffrey A. Lanphear on Friday upheld a request from Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green to state Treasurer James Diossa to withhold $8.5 million in state car tax payments from the city, claiming Providence owed nearly $30 million to the district under the that authorized RIDE’s 2019 takeover of the Providence Public School Department.

A decision on how much the city must pay was originally scheduled for Wednesday morning but was postponed to Nov. 20. The City Council’s Committee on Finance was scheduled to meet to reallocate $1.5 million in federal COVID relief funds to help cover school budget shortfalls at its Tuesday meeting, but postponed that part of its agenda to Monday, Nov. 18.

Michelle Moreno Silva, spokesperson for Diossa’s office, declined to comment on the Superior Court’s ruling.

“Our role here is very minimal,” she said in a phone interview. “We just hold the money.”

Smiley told reporters Tuesday that the city may have to conduct layoffs and furlough additional employees — which he said would save the city $200,000 per day. Also possible, he said, the city could impose a mid-year tax hike, something it can’t do without General Assembly approval.

“If legislation is introduced, it will be thoroughly reviewed through the public committee hearing process,” Senate spokesperson Greg Pare said in an email.

Last week’s Superior Court ruling intensified the battle over funding obligations to the district. The feud went public in early October after Smiley to reveal an “ultimatum” made by Providence Superintendent Javier Montañez asking for $10.9 million for the district.

Montañez warned Smiley that without the cash from the city, the district would have to cut winter and spring sports, along with revoking students’ Rhode Island Public Transit Authority bus passes.

Smiley responded with a $1 million offer the following day, promising to use money from a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement recently struck with Lifespan Corporation, plus a parking agreement with the Rhode Island School of Design. The City Council promised to repurpose $1.5 million from its share of federal pandemic relief money.

But Smiley said the combined offer was not accepted as of Tuesday.

“All of this is in the context of irresponsible spending from the school department,” he said Tuesday. “We all know there was going to be a fiscal cliff when the federal COVID aid expired and they did nothing to plan for it other than to send us the bill and expect Providence taxpayers would foot that bill.”

Smiley blamed Infante-Green’s administration at RIDE for a lack of collaboration, adding the city would help to instill discipline and oversight on state spending.

“It is clear the commissioner views her ability to run our schools as one without checks and balances,” he said. “Cooperation is a one-way street with her.”

Smiley and City Council President Rachel Miller called on the state to put the district back on local control — something the Rhode Island Council on Elementary and Secondary Education declined to do , instead extending the takeover through 2027.

“Our city is not a bank for a state-controlled experiment,” Miller said. “After four years, it has become abundantly clear the state takeover is not working to promote the collaboration and the transparent decision making that our students need.”

RIDE spokesperson Victor Morente said it was a lack of city resources and underperformance that led the state to take over the school district in the first palace.

“City leaders have repeatedly stated they are ready to prove to the State that they are prepared to regain local control, but their budget priorities say otherwise,” Morente said in a statement.

The budget feud led outside of City Hall on Tuesday.

Budget Battle Over Providence Schools Intensifies as Smiley Warns of Tax Hikes, Service Cuts

Christopher Shea — Fri, 15 Nov 2024 15:30:00 +0000