Chicago Public Schools Announces First Day Attendance Rates for the 2022-23 School Year

Chicago Public Schools Announces First Day Attendance Rates for the 2022-23 School Year

CHICAGO – Chicago Public Schools (CPS) announced that more than
93 percent of students attended the first day of classes on Monday, August 22nd, up from 91 percent on day one last year. The uptick follows the District’s strategic effort to offer robust summer programming, from academic recovery classes to those aimed at helping students accelerate, as well as enrichment courses, career exploration and grade-level transition camps.

“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,” said CPS CEO Pedro Martinez. “I am grateful to our amazing CPS families for allowing us to work with more than 91,000 students over the summer and to all our faculty and staff who provided great learning experiences. Now we must continue to keep students in school where they can continue to learn, grow, and succeed with their classmates.”

Historical Comparison First Day of School Attendance Rate:
2022-23 School Year: 93.4 percent (Earliest first day in recent history)
2021-22 School Year: 91.2 percent (First day of school before Labor Day)
2020-21 School Year: 84.2 percent (Remote Learning)
2019-20 School Year: 94.2 percent
2018-19 School Year: 94.5 percent
2017-18 School Year: 94.7 percent
2016-17 School Year: 93.9 percent

*2013-2014 School Year: 93.5 percent (last time CPS began classes
before Labor Day)

The District opened school doors one week earlier than the prior year, as
the new calendar aligns its schedule to be closer to its suburban school district and college calendars. Under this new calendar, the first semester ends prior to winter break, offering students and staff a more defined session for uninterrupted teaching and learning.

The school year began under new and more relaxed COVID-19 health
guidance that promises to support in-person and continuous instruction. 
The District continues to strongly encourage masking and is offering weekly screening and making vaccine events available through mobile clinics, the District’s 22 school-based health centers and four regional clinics.

District officials hope that the momentum made through participation in
summer activities and programming will encourage school year attendance. More than 12,400 priority students were enrolled in some form of summer programming.

CPS Strategies to engage or re-engage students
In addition to robust summer programming, CPS continues to provide
a variety of engagement and re-engagement programming and services for students and families. These include:

Districtwide Back-to-School Bashes: Between July 15 and Aug. 11, CEO
Martinez and top District leaders greeted more than 17,000 families at the District’s 10 Back-to-School Bashes across the city. Students and families connected with their school communities, received backpacks filled with school supplies, and many took advantage of access to free COVID-19 vaccines and health-related information.

School-level Welcome Back Parties: Schools were allotted funds to host
their own school-based events to welcome students back to school.

Choose to Change: The District’s evidence-based mentoring program
is set to engage with 1000 teens who are heavily impacted by violence and trauma. The program helps students stay or get back to school so they can graduate, stay out of the criminal justice system, and pave their way to a more secure future.

Back to our Future: This new collaborative program with the Illinois
Department of Health (IDHS) and community partner organizations addresses the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on youth and aims to reduce firearm violence, building upon the success of the Choose to Change program.

Student Outreach and Re-Engagement (SOAR) Centers: This collaborative effort with community-based organizations and the City Colleges of Chicago supports students with one-on-one mentoring, workshops, transcript evaluations, and graduation planning.

Targeted Summer Program Recruitment: Schools designed local programs and conducted targeted recruitment of students with a history of chronic absence.

The CPS first-day attendance rate reflects the proportion of students
who were enrolled for the first day of school and engaged with school on
the first day. A high proportion of students who do not attend on the first day often come back to school within the first week or two of theiro wn accord or through some of them previously-cited strategies and programming. When they re-enroll, their existing information is still available in their profile. CPS will outline official enrollment data later this fall, following the 20th day milestone.

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