Nearly 1-in-4 students were chronically absent in 2023 at New Trier High School. That dropped by 65% after reforms were implemented.
One of the wealthiest high school districts in Illinois fought a serious attendance problem with a plan that included explicit expectations, intervention procedures and consequences.
In the first 50 days of the 2022-23 school year, just over 24% of students at New Trier High School were chronically absent, defined by state law as missing 10% or more of the school year, including valid and invalid absences.
The school experienced heightened absenteeism after the COVID-19 pandemic and worked actively to keep students in class. After implementing reforms, absenteeism plummeted to about 8.5% in the first 50 days of the next school year, 2023-24.
New Trier’s problem reflected the state’s: 28.3% of all public school students in Illinois were chronically absent in the 2022-23 school year and 26.3% the following year. New Trier’s success in combating absenteeism comes as the rest of the state still faces a crisis. In 2025, one in four students in the state were chronically absent.
New Trier’s unique absenteeism problem
A variety of social and economic reasons are often cited to explain the state’s absenteeism crisis, such as health concerns, transportation barriers, family issues and housing instability. A variety of these are outside of a school’s direct control and often linked to low incomes.
But New Trier Township High School District 203, in the north suburbs of Chicago, is one of Illinois’ wealthiest school districts, yet it experienced the same absenteeism problem as districts across the state. The district had to look beyond traditional socioeconomic explanations.
Creating a culture of attendance
In spring 2023, New Trier High School created an attendance committee of 18 teachers and administrators, tasked with developing a comprehensive strategy to improve attendance. The committee came up with several reforms:
● An attendance handbook detailing explicit attendance expectations, parent responsibilities, intervention procedures, consequences for excessive absences and support systems available to students.
● Graduating Class Teams, which consist of various administrators and specialists including psychologists and social workers. These teams provide academic and social-emotional support throughout a student’s time in high school. They track each class and intervene early when attendance starts to become a concern.
● A tiered intervention system, which includes attendance monitoring, early-warning indicators, parent outreach and targeted support to students who are accumulating chronic absences.
New Trier regained its “exemplary” designation from the Illinois State Board of Education for the 2024-25 school year. It had lost it in 2023, largely because of its absenteeism problem.
While the New Trier district does not face many of the same challenges as those that are less affluent, its experience suggests that attendance expectations and accountability can play an important role in improving attendance.
