Last year, 43% of Chicago Public Schools teachers missed 10 or more school days. Statewide, it was 34%.
With teacher absences shown to hurt student achievement, Chicago students’ low proficiency rates are not being helped when their teachers fail to show up.
More than 2-in-5 Chicago Public Schools teachers missed 10 or more school days in the 2024-2025 school year. Similarly, just 2-in-5 Chicago students were proficient in reading that same school year, and even fewer were proficient in math.
This marks the lowest teacher attendance rate recorded in CPS in nearly a decade. It’s also nearly 10 percentage points lower than the statewide teacher attendance rate.
The Illinois State Board of Education reports the teacher attendance rate each school year, showing the percentage of teachers who logged fewer than 10 absences for reasons other than professional development, family medical leaves of absence, long-term disability or parental leaves.
In CPS, only 56.8% of teachers logged fewer than 10 absences. That means at least 2-in-5 Chicago teachers were absent 10 or more days. And that’s just the baseline. It’s possible the teachers missed many more than 10 days, but ISBE only reports on the rate of teachers missing fewer than 10 days.
Chicago Teachers Union leadership has only exacerbated the issue of teacher absences in the district. CTU frequently urges members to use a “release day” to leave their classrooms and lobby state lawmakers for more funding. In October, more than 100 CPS teachers skipped school to join a CTU-backed “lobby day.”
While the teachers participated in political advocacy using “personal time,” CPS was on the hook for paying substitutes to cover their absences. Children were left without their regular teachers.
Research points to teacher absence as a leading indicator of student achievement. It’s no wonder so many Chicago students are struggling.
