ETHS students are spending more time in the classroom than immediately after the pandemic as chronic absenteeism and chronic truancy levels fall, according to the recently released Illinois Report Card.
The problem of students getting dinged with disciplinary action for “unauthorized presence,” though, remains. This was the number one reason for disciplinary incidents in 2023-2024, presented in ETHS’s discipline report reviewed at the Dec. 9 Board of Education meeting.
An “unauthorized presence,” refers to times students aren’t where they should be when they should be, whether that’s wandering the halls, entering a different classroom, or leaving the building altogether.
Despite its own problems with unauthorized presence incidents, ETHS fares better when it comes to attendance levels overall than the state of Illinois and continues to work on the issue.
A step above the state
For schools nationwide, the pandemic started or deeply exaggerated issues with absenteeism. In Illinois in 2020, only 11% of students were labeled chronically absent. This percentage nearly doubled to 21.1% in 2021, and rose again to 29.8% in 2022.
ETHS, although dealing with these same issues, has fared better since the pandemic than the state of Illinois in both categories.
The percentage of students at ETHS labeled as chronically absent — students who miss 10 or days, including excused or unexcused absences — dropped marginally between 2023 and 2024 by a little under a percentage point to 20.9%.
This percentage is still lower than the Illinois average, 26.3%.
The percentage of students who are chronically truant sees similar patterns at ETHS, also dropping by a percentage point to 8.8% between 2022-2023 and 2023-2024.
The Illinois average percentage of chronic truancy is much higher, at 20%. The difference between ETHS’s truancy levels and the state levels is much greater than for chronic absenteeism, meaning students at ETHS are more likely to miss class with excuses than without than the average student in Illinois.
At the high school, students are only permitted five unexcused absences in any one class block before they receive an incomplete in the course, according to the student handbook. This number is actually down this year from six absences the year prior, and eight unexcused absences before 2022, as stated in previous versions of the ETHS Pilot.
Still, though, with 20.9% of students chronically absent last year, that means over 1,000 students missed 10 or more days of school in the 2023-2024 school year.
There are also disparities between demographic groups when it comes to attendance. These disparities mirror those seen in all disciplinary incidents — not just unauthorized presence incidents — which the District 202 Board of Education has expressed concerns about for some time.
Keeping kids in class
sThe Evanston Township High School community approaches attendance with the understanding that something of educational value happens in class blocks every day,” the ETHS Pilot reads. “These activities and interactions can never be exactly duplicated.”
Students who chronically struggle with attendance can suffer from lower test scores, and can even affect the test scores of students in their classrooms, a study finds.
This year, in partnership with North Cook’s Alternative Learning Opportunities Programs (ALOP), several North Cook advocates have connected with more than 60 individual students to help get students to class.
In-school truancy
“We’re hoping to continue to utilize them, as they work with our students who struggle with unauthorized presence in the building, to combat this in-school truancy, so that students are able to attend classes, understand the importance of attending classes and improve their attendance overall,” said ETHS class of 2026 dean Letitia Hinkle at the Dec. 9 Board of Education meeting.
In certain cases, the deans will also refer students struggling with class attendance to student services.
“We also have instances of unauthorized presence because students feel somewhat disconnected from class,” Hinkle said. “Maybe they were out for a while because they were sick, and they were finding it difficult to catch up.”
Student services can help identify if these students need help from a social worker to feel more connected, or additional learning supports to get back on track.
“I’ve had several students tell me that class is too hard,” Hinkle said. She went on to describe how this can especially be in issue for those still acclimating to high school.
She described helping students stay in class as holistic — it includes offering supports, doing walk-throughs in the hallways so students know who the deans are and that they care, keeping teachers in the loopsand more.
“Is it a work in progress? Absolutely,” she said. “Is there one singular solution? Absolutely not.”
Students spending more time in classrooms, but ‘unauthorized presence’ problem remains is from Evanston RoundTable, Evanston's most trusted source for unbiased, in-depth journalism.