New Trier High School seniors’ chronic absenteeism peaks at 38%
New Trier High School seniors are chronically absent nearly 38% of the time, leaving school officials concerned and looking for ways to lower those numbers.
At the Feb. 21 school board meeting, New Trier officials provided an overview on school attendance noting the chronic absentee rate for all four classes was just over 25% as of Feb. 10.
The percentage of chronically absent students rose by class with just over 14% of freshmen, 21.4% for sophomores, 27.8% for juniors and almost 38% for seniors, according to school documents.
“We’ve been looking at this and struggling with this in a lot of ways,” Superintendent Paul Sally said.
Chronic absences — which are both excused and unexcused — defined if a student misses 10% of school days throughout the school year which translates to 18 school days given the approximate 180 day school year.
Assistant Superintendent for Special Education and Student Services Joanne Panopoulos noted New Trier does have systems in place to work with students with the goal of improving attendance but they also want to install the responsibility of getting to school for the students.
“We will work with those students who do have struggles, and we try to balance that level of accountability,” Panopoulos said.
Assistant Principal for Student Services Scott Williams spoke of the importance of students being in class, including the development and growth of social skills.
“You learn how to get along with people and learn some of those soft social skills that we just pick up along the way,” Williams said.
Assistant Principal Gail Gamrath added sometimes parents don’t realize how many times they have excused children from school, as they get busy with their own lives.
“Ultimately, we need to circle the wagons with families, schools and our outside providers. We need to be honest with what is going on with our kids so we can develop healthier and non-avoidant patterns of behavior here,” Gamrath said.
School officials said rising absentee rate is not just a New Trier issue as they are seeing those same trends nationally. An Illinois State Board of Education representative wrote in an email to Pioneer Press chronic absentee numbers also rose within the state in 2022.
Several officials tied the spiking absentee rate to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, especially when students were learning remotely, away from school.
“I wonder if those cohorts of students may lack a certain amount of resiliency and perseverance that students pre-COVID didn’t lack and maybe the current freshmen and sophomore won’t increase at this current rate,” board member Kimberly Alcantara said.
Board Vice President Jean Hahn later referred to many adults now working at least in a hybrid work environment.
“So many of us don’t have to be at our desk 9-5 Monday through Friday anymore,”
Hahn added. “It’s challenging for parents to explain to our young people why they do.”
Panopoulos said a committee of school officials would be meeting to assess the situation and find ways to go forward.
“We know there is an uptick of anxiety not only at New Trier, but across the nation,” Gamrath said. “We need to be able to address why there is avoidance that goes along with anxiety and how to get in front of that.”