Student attendance is a huge part of what makes students and a school successful. But with societal and cultural changes and COVID-19, it has been difficult for schools across the country to keep student chronic absenteeism numbers from skyrocketing. As of March, District 230’s chronic absenteeism rate (as defined by missing 10% or more of the school year), is 17.4%.
Although parents are being informed about the attendance of their students, it doesn’t necessarily translate into students being here more consistently. Students learn valuable lessons at school and attendance is something that is mandatory when starting a job or participating in events as they become adults. To help students learn the value of attending school, District 230 has crafted new policies to encourage success at Carl Sandburg High School.
As of right now, if a student has a parent or guardian call them off for school, it is an excused absence, and they have an unlimited number of those. However, a new policy has been created for the 2025-2026 school year here at Sandburg. This new policy includes a grade penalty on assignments affected by unexcused absences or continuous absences, a change from attendance policy in recent years.
As Associate Principal Brian Klene states, “Being in school matters.” Showing up as well as participating gets students ready for the real world. But without accountability and consequences from continuous absences, students struggle to meet these goals. To fix the chronic absences that occur here at Sandburg, the district and building leaders are implementing consequences.
The new policy regarding attendance at Carl Sandburg High School has to do with the number of excused absences a student can receive. At the start of the 2025/2026 school year, a parent/guardian can call in up to 7 excused absences to the Attendance Office per semester. Off-campus passes are counted towards this limit of 7.
When a student’s absence is called in for the 8th time, it will be counted as unexcused unless guardians provide evidence of a valid exemption – for example, a doctor’s note or any other exemptions that have been stated in the School Code.
If a student has a valid excused absence, they can make up their work for full points, which is the policy now. But if a student has an unexcused absence, the grade for the work they needed to make up will be 75% of their earned score. A policy similar to this one previously existed but had been removed until now. This one is “less of a grade hit than the previous one,” says Klene.
“Implementation is going to be very difficult, but we want kids in school,” Klene states. Data supports the idea that the more often a student is present at school, the higher their GPA and test scores tend to be. The implementation of this policy is aiming to help students learn and grow more effectively.
It is important that issues that arise in a school environment are addressed, and so, the new attendance policy hopes to decrease the amount of chronic absenteeism here at Sandburg. With the help of staff members, students, and families, we can make the environment of Sandburg better than ever before.