More than 40% of Chicago Public Schools students were chronically absent during the 2024–2025 academic year — missing at least 10% of school days. For about 130,000 young people, that adds up to nearly a month of lost learning. And if chronic absenteeism patterns persist over a student’s K-12 academic experience, they would end up with up to two years less learning than their peers.
The implications of chronic absenteeism are profound and far-reaching. When students miss significant amounts of school, they lose access not only to instruction, but also to tutoring, mental health support, extracurricular activities and the peer and trusted adult relationships that help keep them connected and on track for high school graduation.
Chicago’s young people understand this deeply. One student who participated in a focus group conducted by A Better Chicago during summer 2025 put it simply: “When school feels like a place where people care about you, you want to be there.”
Families also play a key role in establishing consistent school attendance as a norm. Parents and community members, working in partnership with local school leaders and educators, help create a system of support that enables students to be present in school and engaged in their learning.
The recently released 2026 State of Our Youth report by A Better Chicago brings together public data with the experiences of our city’s young people shared through surveys and focus groups to offer a deeper look at how they are faring. Encouragingly, similar to last year, the vast majority (95%) of Chicago youth say they feel optimistic about their futures — a powerful reminder that young people still believe in what is possible.
At the same time, students point to real challenges that can make attending school difficult. Nearly 95% of youth say mental health is a serious issue affecting their peers, and these struggles are among the most common reasons students say their classmates miss school. The broader social and economic pressures many families are navigating, along with concerns about community violence and escalating immigration activity, can add to that strain. When students are dealing with anxiety, stress or instability outside the classroom, even just showing up for school can become much harder.
Relationships matter
But the survey findings also highlight what draws students to school. Students say they are more likely to attend when school feels meaningful — when they feel respected by teachers, engaged with the material and are able to see how what they are learning connects to their future.
Relationships with supportive adults and peers matter deeply as well. In other words, students are more likely to show up to school when they feel they belong — and when they believe school is helping them build a path toward success in college or the workplace.
Across Chicago, schools and community partners are working to create those conditions for students. At César E. Chávez Multicultural Academic Center in the Back of the Yards neighborhood, Principal Barton Dassinger and his team start with a simple belief: S tudents are more likely to attend when schools build strong relationships with families. When attendance begins to slip, staff reach out quickly — not with punishment, but with a question: “How can we help?”
Still, no single strategy will solve chronic absenteeism. The challenge is complex and reflects the harsh reality that long-standing inequities and under-resourced systems — compounded by the pandemic and ongoing political pressures — continue to shape young people’s lives in uneven ways.
South, West focus
That is why A Better Chicago recently launched Every Day Counts, an initiative committing at least $10 million over the next five years to help strengthen student attendance. This effort will focus on communities where absenteeism remains highest — including Austin, Englewood, Garfield Park, South Lawndale, South Shore and Woodlawn.
Our grants will provide funding to support partnerships between community-based nonprofit organizations and schools that prioritize interventions centered on prevention for elementary students and additional support for high school students already struggling with attendance.
We are seeking new and innovative approaches to improve school attendance, support a culture of student engagement and belonging in schools and classrooms, and empower students to thrive as they plan and prepare for success in college, vocational training or postsecondary employment.
The priorities are clear and urgent. Chicago Public Schools’ five-year plan, approved in September 2024, includes a number of strategies to reduce the chronic absenteeism rate to about 25%.
But improving attendance cannot fall on Chicago Public Schools and local school leaders and educators alone. Addressing chronic absenteeism must become a citywide priority — one that will require community organizations, employers, faith leaders and policymakers across Chicago working together as partners with families and parents to support young people and strengthen the future of Chicago’s neighborhoods — and the city they will lead.
Beth Swanson is CEO of A Better Chicago. Janice Jackson is a member of the A Better Chicago board of directors and former CEO of Chicago Public Schools. She is currently executive director of the Education & Society Program at the Aspen Institute’s Center for Rising Generations.