CPS first-day attendance ticks up toward pre-pandemic levels

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Education This Week is our weekly recap of the biggest news in education affecting the Chicago area, Illinois, the region and the nation. Today's edition was written by Nader Issa, the Sun-Times' education beat reporter. Follow him on Twitter here.

Good morning —

The first week of school last month, we talked about the hope that this year might feature less stress, anxiety and chaos. Everyone has had more than their share of those things the past few years.

If there are fewer problems to troubleshoot, everyone from officials to principals, teachers, staff, students, parents and activists can get back to focusing on the educational experience.

A key part of education? Attending school. And that now looks to be back on track.

Chicago Public Schools officials released their first-day attendance rate, and while it's still not quite at pre-pandemic levels, it's getting closer. The district said more than 93% of students were accounted for on the first day of school Aug. 22.

A little over 91% of kids showed up the first day last year, while 84% logged on to start the 2020-21 school year — the one that featured full remote learning. First-day attendance averaged around 94.3% in the four years preceding COVID-19.

Now, there are still questions about how many kids exactly were in classrooms that first week last month. CPS said its attendance rate of 93% — and its figures in past years — included students who had an excused absence. So there might be some families who didn't show because of the early start to the year. And we still don't know this year's enrollment, meaning there are potentially thousands of kids who have left and aren't coming back.

(The remaining 7% of kids counted as absent — depending on this year's enrollment, somewhere around 20,000 students — were registered for school this year but didn't show and didn't give a valid reason why they weren't there. About 60% of them were back by the end of the week.)

But the fact of the matter is it's a good sign — maybe the best of the pandemic era — that schools are back in touch with their kids after another summer break. Whether they showed up the first day or a couple days later, they're at least accounted for. Heading into last school year, officials said there were up to 100,000 kids they had lost contact with.

Schools are looking to make this a recovery year academically, and they're in a good position to do that when they aren't spending weeks or months simply looking for their kids.

We'll have plenty more in the weeks to come on the start of the school year and how kids are faring academically. In the meantime, check out our top news of the past week, including a really wonderful story by Michael Loria about three new horses at the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences, a look by WBEZ's Anna Savchenko at a women's prison education program and much more.

Until next week,

Nader Issa, Sun-Times education reporter

Got a question you'd like me to look into? Respond to this email or send an email to audience@suntimes.com and your question may be answered in an upcoming newsletter!

First-day attendance at CPS ticks up toward pre-pandemic levels with 93% in class

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