Attendance rates at Chicago Public Schools continued their climb back toward pre-pandemic levels last week as more than 93% of students showed up to classes on the first day of school, the district announced Friday.
Officials are considering the rate an accomplishment after pandemic attendance struggles — in addition to the fact it was the earliest start to a CPS school year in modern memory after an unusually short summer. The district credited its summer programs, jobs and other opportunities with keeping families engaged and ready to return on Aug. 22.
“Every day in school matters and we are thrilled to see a higher percentage of students were in class as we started the new year,” CPS CEO Pedro Martinez said in a statement. “Now we must continue to keep students in school where they can continue to learn, grow, and succeed with their classmates.”
CPS didn’t release attendance data for the rest of the first week or say how many students in all were at schools the past two weeks. Officials said they would release this year’s enrollment figures after the 20th day of school, which marks the official number for the year. That falls on Sept. 19.
Enrollment in the school district has been on the decline for years, dropping by nearly 74,000 in the last decade. Some researchers are predicting CPS enrollment could drop by as much as 15,000 students this school year.
There had been concern about attendance given the early start. Even as districts statewide moved their start dates earlier into August over the last few decades, Chicago stuck with a post-Labor Day return. Classes started the week before Labor Day last year and two weeks prior this year.
A little over 92% of kids showed up on the first day last year, while 84% logged on to start the 2020-21 school year, the one which featured remote learning due to the pandemic. First-day attendance averaged around 94.3% in the four years preceding COVID-19.
CPS said more than 12,400 students identified as needing support enrolled in some form of summer programming. There were also thousands of families at back-to-school bashes citywide, the district said, connecting with their schools for free backpacks, supplies, activities and COVID-19 vaccines and health information.
Nader Issa is the education reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times. Sarah Karp covers education for WBEZ Chicago.
