Lyons Township High Absenteeism Drops Slightly

LA GRANGE, IL – Lyons Township High School's student absenteeism rate remains high compared with the years before the pandemic, according to the Illinois Report Card website.

The state tracks 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.

Last school year, 23 percent of Lyons Township High's students were chronically absent, a reduction from 24 percent in 2022-23 and 28 percent in 2021-22. Pre-pandemic, the rate was 11 percent.

Lyons Township is in the ballpark of similarly wealthy high schools in the area. Last year, the chronic absenteeism rate at York High in Elmhurst was 22 percent, while Hinsdale Central and South were 19 percent and 23 percent, respectively. Their rates, too, are elevated compared to before the pandemic.

CHRONIC ABSENTEEISM

Here are the percentages of students who missed at least 10 percent of days in a school year with or without a valid excuse:

Lyons Township (La Grange)
2024 23%
2023 24%
2022 28%
2019 13%
2018 11%

Hinsdale Central (Hinsdale)
2024 19%
2023 21%
2022 20%
2019 9%
2018 13%

Hinsdale South (Darien)
2024 23%
2023 26%
2022 23%
2019 17%
2018 16%

York (Elmhurst)
2024 22%
2023 37%
2022 22%
2019 10%
2018 16%

Source: Illinois Report Card