Attendance Policy Changes 2025-26

Student attendance continues to be a concern and a priority at District 230.  Our Strategic Framework goal is for 90% of students to attend school no less than 90% of the school year. At the end of 2023-24, only 80.2% of students in D230 hit that mark, which means nearly 20% of our students fit the state’s definition of being chronically absent. Some of this year’s efforts to address this included the launch of our Attendance Matters campaign, the addition of quarterly Attendance Progress Reports, and increased building-level initiatives to get students to school on time and every day.

As part of our ongoing work, we also conducted a thorough review of our attendance-related policies in the Parent/Student Handbook. The review included an in-depth look at the Illinois School Code’s requirements, an analysis of eight other suburban high school districts’ attendance policies, and the solicitation of feedback from various D230 groups and committees. Two factors that stood out as contributing to an elevated chronic absenteeism rate were the lack of clear expectations for good attendance and reasonable guardrails for excessive absences when there is no valid cause. These speak directly to the need for change in our policy.

In our current attendance policy, all absences are considered excused as long as they are called in by a parent or guardian. Also, students can make up missed work for full credit within a specified time frame regardless of the reason for the absence. After researching other districts’ attendance policies, we found that our current policy is highly irregular and allows for an overly expansive interpretation of the Illinois School Code’s definition of “valid causes” for absences. It de-emphasizes the importance of attendance at a time when it needs to be re-emphasized. 

In short, the main changes to our attendance policy for next year are the reintroduction of unexcused absences, a limit to excused absences when no School Code exemptions are met, and adjustments to the makeup work policy. These changes will reinforce the importance of being in school and will also better align our policy to both the Illinois School Code and the attendance policies of similar high school districts. Click here for a summary of the substantive changes that will take effect in 2025-26. 

Click here to submit questions about the policy changes.