Chronic school absenteeism that skyrocketed during and after the COVID-19 pandemic has begun to abate, according to data presented at the Riverside School District 96 Board of Education Committee of the Whole meeting Feb. 5.
That’s good, but there’s still more to do, said Superintendent Dr. Martha Ryan-Toye.
Chronic absenteeism is “not the day-to-day absences, it’s kids that are missing significant amounts of school,” Ryan-Toye said Friday.
She pointed to the state’s legal definition of “chronic absence,” or absences that total 10 percent or more of school days of the most recent academic school year, including absences with and without valid cause, and out-of-school suspensions for an enrolled student.
The district tracks chronic absenteeism per trimester, Ryan-Toye said, and in Trimester I of the 2022-23 school year, it stood at 20.14%. In Trimester I of the 2023-24 school year, that number dropped to 11.71%
This school year, chronic absenteeism dropped again, to 10.59%.
“That’s good news, we’re happy about that, we’ve devoted a lot of effort to it,” she said, adding that the pandemic impact has lessened. But there is more to chronic absenteeism than that.
“Some of it is illness, extended illnesses,” she said of root causes. “I think it can be school anxiety, or a school refusal, fear about being away from home, especially with younger children.”
For the complete 2022-23 school year, chronic absenteeism was 15% for District 96. A year later, that fell to 11%. What that will look like this year remains to be seen, but Ryan-Toye said the components are in place to bring it down even further.
Principals and teachers at the district’s five schools play a major role in monitoring and identifying kids who are either chronically absent or at risk, along with school psychologists, social workers and even nurses.
But the district has also deployed the Tapestry program at Hauser Junior High to help students that are at risk of chronic absenteeism. Trimester I data provided at the Committee of the Whole meeting Feb. 5 showed that Hauser’s chronic absentee percentage was 11.41 %. That’s slightly lower than Ames Elementary, which sat at 13.64 %
Tapestry is part of the West40 Alternative Learning Opportunities Program, which serves western Cook County school districts. It has a dedicated staff member that assists with everything from math and reading help to special education services.
“When you miss five, six, seven days, you feel like you’re really behind,” Ryan-Toye said, adding the program uses a proactive and engaging approach to working with students and their families.
The tools in place to curb chronic absenteeism district-wide are a far cry from pre-pandemic years.
“Back then,” Ryan-Toye said, “you’d get a letter, ‘Your child has missed X-days of school, we’re concerned.’ That documentative approach had limited results.”
She added: “We’re carefully monitoring our absentee numbers, we’re identifying specific students who are on a trajectory heading in that direction. We’re determining how to add the supports to help the family and help the student.”
It’s also important to understand what chronic absenteeism is not. At the Committee of the Whole meeting, District 96 school board president Wesley Murheid inquired about the 20% absenteeism on Jan. 21, the day after presidential inauguration day.
That, Ryan-Toye said, was a bit of an anomaly. The weather was extremely cold that day, and it was in the middle of the cold and flu season.
Nevertheless, chronic absenteeism is an issue every school district is facing.
“This is an issue statewide and nationwide,” Ryan-Toye said.