Chronic Absenteeism

Chronic absenteeism means a student is missing too much school. It happens when a student misses 10% or more of the school year, no matter the reason. Missing this much school can make it harder for a student to learn, make social connections, and create a pattern of successful habits for the future.

Underlying Causes of Chronic Absenteeism

It’s a Journey, Cut Chronic Absence in Half

Attendance is one of the most important aspects of school. Although it starts at home, creating a positive attendance atmosphere takes a community. Below is a visual representation of the community and support every CPS student is given to foster positive attendance standards.

Parents/Family

Ensure students get to school on time every day, monitor student absences, and create a healthy environment around attendance.

School

Communicating attendance standards and procedures. Conducting outreach and interventions for students facing absenteeism and truancy.

Network

Ensuring schools support students' attendance needs and adhere to CPS and Illinois policy.

District

Providing all CPS schools with resources and support.

Stakeholder Roles in Supporting Attendance

CPS strives to support students and their specific needs. By working together with these stakeholders, we can increase student attendance and decrease chronic absenteeism and chronic truancy.

Get your student(s) to school every day
Get your student(s) to school on-time
Communicate barriers to success with your school
Check that your student(s) are prepared
Encourage your student(s) to come ready to learn
Ask questions and know your student's school
Stay informed with what's happening with your student(s) and their school experience
Attend important events at your student's school
Check Parent Portal regularly to stay updated on your student(s)'s progress
Know you are our partner in your student(s) success

Be prepared to greet students everyday
Start the school day on time
Let no distractions take the school off the goal of learning
Ensure there are procedures and protocols for all attendance needs, including but not exclusively, tardiness, cuts, truancy, truancy, and absences
Maintain and be consistent about discipline procedures so student behavior is managed beyond suspensions
Have a clear, consistent, and public attendance policy
Reinforce the attendance policy regularly and apply it consistently
Support teachers with resources for struggling students with attendance issues
Provide engaging clubs, teams, and activities that appeal to multiple student interests
Establish a viable attendance team to respond to attendance needs and to be proactive on data trends
Review and share data for timely, evidence-based decision-making
Utilize data systems and other tools to conduct targeted outreach and track efficacy of attendance interventions

Establish a space for prioritizing, planning and receiving feedback on attendance and enrollment practices
Establish and communicate standards, functions, and results needed for student attendance improvement
Provide a first level of review and response to enrollment issues brought by stakeholders
Establish differentiated attendance and enrollment targets and celebrate progress towards targets
Let no distractions take the school off the goal of learning
Ensure there are procedures and protocols for all attendance needs, including but not exclusively, tardiness, cuts, truancy, and absences for your schools
Ensure that fair and consistent discipline procedures exist and are supported at your schools, so student behavior is managed beyond suspensions
Emphasize a culture of communication for maximizing student attendance
Support schools with resources
Guide and train attendance teams to respond to attendance needs and to be proactive around data trends
Ensure your schools review and shares data for evidence based decision making
Review data and communicate with Network schools to support strategy and action development

Work with stakeholders to address equity gaps and concerns in attendance and enrollment policy implementation for high-priority student groups
Provide centralized professional learning on attendance practices and use of attendance resources
Ensure that all networks have established attendance procedures and protocols for all schools
Ensure that all networks have established fair and consistent discipline procedures and that said procedures are supported, so student behavior is managed beyond suspensions
Emphasize a culture of communication for maximizing student attendance
Review data and communicate with networks to support strategy and action development
Support schools with resources and streamline access to said resources
Guide and train attendance teams to respond to attendance needs and to be proactive around data trends
Ensure networks and schools review and use data for evidence based decision making
Monitor and ensure all stakeholders are held accountable