LTHS On High Side With Absenteeism

LA GRANGE, IL – Most schools experienced an increase in absenteeism last school year, but Lyons Township High School's was greater than most, according to state figures.

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.

At Lyons Township, 28 percent of students were chronically absent last school year, compared with 6 percent the two previous years. In 2019, the rate was 13 percent.

Nearby wealthy districts had lower absenteeism last year. Hinsdale Central and South high schools saw rates of 20 and 23 percent, respectively. Elmhurst's York High was at 22 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.

Argo High School in Summit, where the rate of low-income students is four times Lyons Township High's, saw the same rate of chronic absenteeism, at 28 percent.

Proviso East and West, where low-income levels are far higher than Lyons Township High, experienced 60 percent and 51 percent chronic absenteeism rates, 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.