To confront the challenge of high levels of student absenteeism, a network of rural districts in New York and Ohio embarked on a continuous improvement process with the National Center for Rural Education Research Networks (NCRERN) in the 2020-21 school year. In this paper, we present a case study from this Rural Research Network, describing how 8 rural districts implemented a personalized messaging campaign despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. We evaluate the personalized messaging intervention through a multi-site, blocked randomized controlled trial. We find that absences among students whose caregivers had been assigned to receive messages decreased by 2.4 percent. Results were consistent across districts, student populations, and the mode of message (email, text, or both), suggesting this type of nudge intervention can be effective in a variety of contexts. The paper concludes with a discussion of how the Rural Research Network model can be leveraged for future efficacy studies in rural areas.