During the second night of the 2025 NFL Draft, Browns front office members, coaches and support staff wore custom black long-sleeve shirts featuring the Stay in the Game! Attendance Network logo as part of an initiative to support youth football, education and community advancement.
The Stay in the Game! Attendance Network (SITG!) – launched in 2019 by the Cleveland Browns Foundation, Ohio Department of Education and Workforce and Proving Ground out of Harvard, now managed by Battelle – has worked with education experts for the past five years with the goal of dramatically improving school attendance and reducing chronic absenteeism for Ohio students.
Working together as a three-team partnership spanning the state, the Cleveland Browns, Columbus Crew and FC Cincinnati have each played an integral role with their concerted efforts to help decrease chronic absenteeism with districts in their region and across the state. The Network currently supports 161 districts throughout the state of Ohio, with 108 of those districts within the Browns region.
When SITG! launched in 2019, the chronic absenteeism rate for students in Ohio was 16.7 percent. After the pandemic, chronic absenteeism increased across the nation and locally, Ohio's chronic absenteeism rate had increased significantly to 30.2 percent for the 2021-22 school year — a sign of more work to be done.
For the past two years, SITG! districts have outpaced the state in lowering chronic absenteeism rates. In the state of Ohio, chronic absenteeism rates fell by 3.4 percent for the 2022-23 school year and 5.2 percent in SITG! districts. For the 2023-24 school year, chronic absenteeism rates fell 1.2 percent in the state of Ohio and 2.9 percent for SITG! districts.
From hosting in-school events to special giveaways and game day engagements, Stay in the Game! works to find creative ways to recognize students with good and improved school attendance and celebrate their hard work.
School attendance is directly linked with success in the classroom. Students who are not chronically absent are 3.9 times more likely to read on grade level by the end of third grade and are three times more likely to graduate from high school on time. It is critical that students are provided with the resources and support needed to attend school regularly to set them up for success in school and beyond.
Follow @SITG_Browns for the latest community updates!
