Cleveland Browns-led Attendance Network and U.S. Department of Education honor 45 students for improved attendance during Attendance Awareness Month

The Cleveland Browns and their Stay in the Game! Attendance Network marked Attendance Awareness Month by recognizing 45 students from The Intergenerational School in Cleveland, Ohio, for improved attendance at the start of the 2026-27 school year.

U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon and LB Winston Reid congratulated the students and urged them to keep showing up each day, as the program focuses on reducing chronic absenteeism. Organizers said the students received recognition tied to their attendance efforts, and Reid and McMahon also highlighted the importance of building consistent academic progress over time.

A key part of the day was a football-themed experience at the CrossCountry Mortgage Campus, including an afternoon of hands-on football activities. The students were also given custom Browns jerseys with their names, a moment described by organizers as a morale boost that landed as a “cherry on top” after the attendance milestone recognition.

Stay in the Game! (SITG!) is a collaboration originally launched in 2019 by the Cleveland Browns Foundation and the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce, and it is now managed by Battelle. The release says the network partners with 201 districts across Ohio and reaches 611,000 students, with districts able to join at no cost.

Organizers also pointed to broader outcomes for Ohio students tied to the program’s attendance work. They cited a statewide chronic absenteeism decline from 25.1 percent in 2024-25 to 23.9 percent in 2025-26, describing the change as representing additional hours of learning gained.

The Intergenerational School was singled out for progress over two school years, including a reduction in its chronic absenteeism rate from 40.6 percent in 2023-24 to 32.8 percent in 2025-26, according to the Browns Foundation update.