State Report Cards Reveal Chronic Absenteeism a Concern

By Andrea Arens

The state report cards were released this week and, while there were gains in academic achievement, it revealed the state still has a chronic absenteeism issue.

Pre-pandemic absenteeism was at 17.5 percent. Currently, the rate is 28.7 percent, which is down slightly from last year’s 30 percent.

Illinois state superintendent Tony Sanders attributes gains to EBF (evidenced based funding) that was put into place in 2018. In EBF, tax dollars from a well-funded district are re-appropriated to a district with less funding.

In Peotone CUSD 207-U, the graduation rate is 96 percent, despite the 26 percent chronic absenteeism. Illinois Assessment of Readiness test scores in math were just slightly lower than the state average. Peotone spends about $16K, on average, per student with total expenditures coming in at $23,458,718. The evidenced based funding target was $18, but Peotone had $19M and therefore reached 104 percent adequacy (meaning property tax dollars will get funneled elsewhere). The 207-U District had an 83 percent teacher retention rate, with an average of 17 students per class, and all four schools were rated commendable.

Crete-Monee 201-U has eight schools total, while the rest of the districts have three-to-four schools. C-M 201-U had a 92 percent graduation rate, with 35 percent chronic absenteeism. English Language Arts was higher than the state average, while math was lower on the IAR. They spend about $19K per student with total expenditures of about $132,541,117. The evidence based funding target was $66M but the actual was $48M – only 72 percent of the target. They had an 89 percent teacher retention rate, with an average class size of 17 students. Crete-Monee High School, Coretta Scott King Elementary, Crete Elementary, and Talala Elementary all received commendable recommendations. Crete-Monee Middle and Balmoral Elementary received comprehensive recommendations, while Monee Elementary received the lowest rating of those targeted.

Beecher 200-U had an 86 percent graduation rate, with 20 percent chronic absenteeism. The English Language Arts scores were just slightly lower than the state average on the Illinois Assessment of Readiness (IAR) exam. Beecher 200-U spends about $14K, on average, per student with total expenditures of $20,948,205. The evidence based funding goal was $15M, but Beecher funding came in at $9.6M actual, or 64 percent of its goal. Beecher had a 96 percent teacher retention rate, with an average class size of 19 students. All three schools were rated commendable.

Grant Park had a whopping 98 percent graduation rate and only 11 percent chronic absenteeism. Both math and language arts scores were lower than the state average on the IAR tests. They spend on average of about $14K per student with total expenditures at around $6,393,675. Grant Park’s evidence based funding (EBF) target was $5.6M, while their actual funding was $5M, resulting in 89 percent of their target. They had an 85 percent teacher retention rate, with an average class size of 15 students. The two schools in the district were rated commendable.

Manteno CUSD 5 had an 88 percent graduation rate, with 16 percent chronic absenteeism. IAR scores were in line with the state average. They spent, on average, about $13K per student with total expenditures of about $30,843,494. Manteno’s EBF target was $24M, but the actual expenditure was $18M – just 73 percent of their adequacy target. They also had an 87 percent teacher retention rate, with an average class size of approximately 20 students. All three schools in the district were rated commendable.