Elmhurst Schools Chip Away At Absence Rate

ELMHURST, IL – Elmhurst School District 205 continues to show improvement in its chronic absenteeism rate, but upper grades still lag behind pre-pandemic times.

The state tracks chronic absenteeism – the rate of students who are absent 10 percent or more of the days in a school year, whether excused or not. For a 180-day year, that means a student missed at least 18 days, or 3½ weeks.

Since the pandemic, student absenteeism has risen across the country.

For the second year, 6 percent of Elmhurst's elementary schools were chronically absent. That's down from 10.4 percent three years ago and 6.1 percent the year before the pandemic.

At the three middle schools, the rate was 9.9 percent last year, down from 10.3 percent a year earlier. Before the pandemic, the rate was 6.7 percent.

At York High School, 18.4 percent of students were chronically absent last year, dropping from 21.8 percent a year earlier. The school reached a peak three years ago, with a rate of 36.9 percent. Last year's rate was still nearly double the 9.9 percent pre-pandemic rate.

High schools typically have higher rates than their elementary and middle school counterparts.

"We have been laser-focused on improving student attendance over time," Kevin Rubenstein, assistant superintendent of student services, told the school board Tuesday. "We are happy to report that our chronic absenteeism rate has really come down."