RIFLE, Colo. - Garfield Re-2 School District has been named one of Colorado's 18 Attendance Challenge Champions after reducing chronic absenteeism by 55.6% over four years.

The district's chronic absenteeism rate fell from 40.1% in the 2021-22 school year to 17.8% in 2025-26. That 22.3 percentage-point decline puts Garfield Re-2 well ahead of the Colorado Department of Education's goal to reduce chronic absenteeism by more than 50% by 2028.

Chronic absenteeism is defined as missing at least 10% of the school year. In 2025-26, Garfield Re-2's chronic absenteeism rate was nearly 10 percentage points below Colorado's statewide rate of 27.5%.

On a beach in Normandy this summer, Rifle High School students Evalee Reider and Kincaid Perdue ran through the water.

It was peaceful. They laughed with friends. They played on the beach.

And they could not stop thinking about what had happened on that same stretch of coastline 82 years earlier.

They had already walked some of the terrain Allied soldiers crossed during the D-Day invasion and tried to imagine doing it carrying rucksacks filled with weapons and survival gear, soaking wet and under enemy fire.

“You just can’t fathom it,” Reider said. “You just really can’t.”

From Exercise Science to Outdoor Recreation Leadership, Garfield Re-2 is continuing to expand Career-Connected Learning opportunities that help students explore careers before they graduate.

The Colorado Department of Education recently approved two new Career-Connected Learning pathways for the district: Exercise Science at Rifle High School and Outdoor Recreation Leadership at Coal Ridge High School.

The new pathways are part of Garfield Re-2's broader effort to expand learning opportunities that connect classroom instruction with college, industry credentials and careers. Over the past two years, the district has introduced new courses in health sciences, engineering, business, technology and outdoor recreation while strengthening partnerships with Colorado Mountain College, Garfield BOCES and local industries.

There are some stories that stay on the page.

And then there are stories that come to life, put on costumes, dance under stage lights, and make an elementary student whisper, “Whoa… that’s mine.”

That was the magic behind Stories That Soar! at Garfield Re-2 School District this spring, as students from Wamsley Elementary School partnered with drama students from Rifle High School to transform children’s writing into live theater.

In a Rifle High School classroom, English Language Development instructor Jeremy Harrison saw how honoring all students’ strengths can help them shine. Earlier this year, he asked one of his newcomer students to teach her classmates a few words in her home language - Quechua,  an indigenous language from mostly Bolivia.

It was a small, but powerful moment.

“This student has this knowledge that none of the rest of us have. And to be honest, she missed a lot of school growing up, so the rest of school is super hard because she doesn’t have the background knowledge her peers have, but she has this one thing: she is an expert, and not even the teacher knows, and she can be the smart one. You should have seen her light up and share her knowledge with us,” he enthused.

“Being bilingual is a very clear strength,” Mr. Harrison added. “I am hoping that we can give students the opportunity to develop an asset they already have.”