Elmhurst D-205 Absenteeism Rises, But It's Not Alone

ELMHURST, IL – Elmhurst School District 205 officials last week noted an increase in absenteeism last school year.

They said they needed to reverse that trend, saying absenteeism leads to worse outcomes for students.

According to the Illinois Report Card, 14 percent of the district's students were chronically absent last year. That was up from 5 percent the two previous years.

The local district's rate was less than half the state's rate last year, but the district, which has relatively few low-income students, is expected to exceed statewide averages.

By the state's definition, students who are considered chronically absent missed 10 percent or more of school days with or without a valid excuse.

High schoolers in most places tend to have higher absenteeism rates. At Elmhurst's York High, 22 percent of students were chronically absent last school year, compared with 7 percent the two previous years. In 2019, the rate was 8 percent.

York is in the neighborhood of other suburban high schools with similarly wealthy demographics.

Lyons Township High School was the highest for absenteeism among the comparison schools, at 28 percent last school year. Downers Grove High School District 99 was 23 percent, while Hinsdale High School District 86 was 21 percent.

New Trier and Stevenson high schools, long seen as the gold standard in Illinois, had absenteeism rates of 19 percent and 20 percent, respectively.

So why are the absenteeism rates higher? Many believe the pandemic is a factor.

"Parents were ... conditioned during COVID that it's OK to keep the kid home. So certainly, we want students staying home if they're ill, but otherwise, we have to create the conditions for them to come to school every day," Elgin-based District 46 Superintendent Tony Sanders told ABC7 last week.

Those conditions, educators told the TV station, include addressing the social and emotional needs of students so that they want to go back to school.