Chronic absenteeism is not merely an attendance issue — it is a flashing warning signal about the challenges of youth homelessness and instability.
Absenteeism in Illinois schools made news in September after the announcement of a state task force created to study the issue and again recently in WBEZ reporter Sarah Karp’s article, “Illinois grad rate hits new high even as ACT scores lag and students continue to miss class.“
As executive director of Chapin Hall, a Chicago-based research and policy institute that focuses on preventing and ending youth homelessness, I urge a response that is comprehensive and compassionate.
In my recent op-ed for The Hechinger Report, I explain how youth homelessness is widespread yet often invisible. Young people who are couch surfing, moving between shelters or sleeping outdoors experience constant disruption that fuels absences and pushes them toward dropping out.
The same conditions that heighten dropout risk also raise the risk of homelessness; youths without a high school diploma or GED are far more likely to experience it. Even those who make it to college frequently confront housing insecurity. Without targeted supports, too many will face chronic adult homelessness, poverty and detachment from opportunity.
The burden is not borne equally. Chronic absenteeism disproportionately affects Black, Hispanic and LGBTQ youths — students already confronting systemic inequities. Statewide, 44.6% of public school students are Black or Hispanic, and in Chicago the share is 81.5%. Any attendance strategy that ignores these disparities will entrench cycles of homelessness and academic failure.
Further, the presence of federal agents deployed as part of “Operation Midway Blitz” has increased absenteeism as families fear being detained.
Schools should operate as safe havens. The state task force should recommend universal, beginning-of-year screening to identify housing instability and ensure staff are trained to connect students to trauma-informed services, counseling and housing supports. Every school has a federally funded McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act liaison to assist students facing homelessness; however, that often boils down to providing affected students with a bus pass.
Illinois should adopt prevention-first and early intervention strategies that mobilize community partners to deliver evidence-based, federally reimbursable services that address poverty, trauma and housing instability. This work requires integrated efforts across education, child welfare, housing and health sectors to create a seamless safety net that can prevent chronic absenteeism.
Bryan Samuels, executive director, Chapin Hall
Don’t brush off violence against police officers
I was shot in the line of duty in 1987. That moment changed my life — and it shaped my lifelong commitment to protecting those who serve. Today, as a retired police chief and ambassador for the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, I’m sounding the alarm: Violence against police officers is rising, and the public conversation isn’t keeping pace.
The latest report from the National Fraternal Order of Police reveals a disturbing trend. While some metrics may suggest a decline, the reality on the ground tells a different story. Officers are being ambushed, targeted and shot with increasing frequency. Yet unless an officer is killed, these incidents often go unnoticed by the media and the public.
This silence is dangerous. It distorts the narrative around policing, erodes morale and undermines efforts to improve officer safety. Every officer shot in the line of duty carries the physical and emotional scars of that moment — scars that rarely make headlines.
We must confront the reality of targeted violence against law enforcement. That means acknowledging the rise in ambush-style attacks, demanding accurate and responsible media coverage, and supporting legislative reforms that prioritize officer safety.
I’m not asking for sympathy. I’m asking for honesty. I’m asking for balance. And I’m asking for action.
Our officers deserve to be seen — not just when they fall but when they survive.
Chief Tom Weitzel, retired, Riverside Police
Not so nice ICE
I’m appalled at the pictures in the media showing U.S.Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel pointing their guns at protesters and onlookers. Is there any reason why the ICE agents are issued guns?
A recent article in “The Atlantic” reveals that more than one-third of aspiring ICE agents failed the minimal physical requirements — 15 push-ups, 32 sit-ups and 1.5-mile run in 14 minutes. In fact, ICE had to ease the requirements to attract more recruits.
ICE may be luring the type of people who live in their parents’ basement, watch porn until the wee hours, play Mortal Kombat on a split screen and microwave corn dogs for nourishment. Videos of these cops in action seem to show the doughy faces and sagging bellies of the aforementioned, fumbling arrests of mostly innocent folks.
That’s not the kind of people I want enforcing our laws and toting firearms on our streets. They are a joke. Comedy Cops.
Jim Arneberg, Hoffman Estates
America, don’t ignore the suffering
I appeal to your conscience whether you are Democrat or Republican, conservative or progressive: You are first a human being.
Watching men, women and children being snatched from jobs, homes and schools, beaten and locked up without families knowing where they are and without any legal representation is not only unlawful, it is immoral. Watching masked men without name badges or identification throw tear gas at crowds of citizens and shoot pepper balls at protesters is against everything America seeks to be.
And now we’re watching seniors and families with children stand in lines for three to four hours for a box of food — as I witnessed at my church on a recent weekend — due to layoffs, soaring prices and the snatching of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits.
While SNAP funding has been restored until next September, we don’t know what this administration will do next and too many are still hungry. Making it nearly impossible for people to feed themselves and their families is pure evil. No matter your political affiliation, we should all agree that no one in America should go without food.
I beg you, America, to find your moral center and stand up and speak up for those who are being brutalized in our streets and those who are wondering how they will eat today.
I beg you to see those struggling, not as objects, but as your brothers and sisters. See them as your mothers and fathers, sons and daughters. Let us regain the conscience we have seemingly lost and demand that their human dignity and rights be respected. Perhaps you can also see what you can do to help someone who is hungry.
America has always aspired to greatness, but no country can be great without a conscience or a soul.
The Rev. Michael L. Pfleger, St. Sabina Church
We are all immigrants
MAGA says immigrants are immoral invaders, but there’s nothing immoral about seeking a better life for your family. This country was founded on the original sin of colonization. The Pilgrims arrived for a better life, but they had no papers and no permission to steal Native land and slaughter Native people. We all should remember how this country was founded and how English settlers stole and killed.
My family came here in the 1840s to escape the poverty and starvation imposed by the British empire on the Irish. They had no papers — just a steamship ticket.
Current immigration laws are intentionally complicated and confusing. Entering this country “legally” is next to impossible for all but the white and the rich — this despite our falling birth rates and the fact we rely on exploiting the cheap labor of immigrants. MAGA should call themselves “MAWA” — Make America White Again — since that is what they want.
Tom Vega-Byrnes, Beverly
Naturalization news
Why doesn’t the Sun Times publish an article detailing the financial cost of naturalization? I believe this is a significant impediment to many immigrants. I read the Sun-Times daily and have never seen anything about this.
Bruce Harmel Johnsburg
Eradicating hate
Anti-Muslim hate and antisemitism will not end with online seminars — these evils will end only through championing free speech and open dialogue. A lawsuit filed by legal advocates and advocacy groups on behalf of Northwestern students argues this point.
Northwestern University has faced backlash for not allowing more than 300 students with diverse backgrounds to reenroll because of their refusal to watch an anti-bias training video students say conflates criticism of Israel with antisemitism.
The truth is no level of discrimination is ever halted by videos that are devoid of intentional human conversation centered in truth and understanding.
Being an academic institution, Northwestern should learn from history, looking to examples such as Bosnia and Serbia, where, despite a genocide, Serbs and Bosnians build relationships together 35 years later, with an understanding of the tragedy.
Relationships between communities who seem to be at odds with one another cannot be reconciled without the freedom of speech to share narratives that are difficult to hear. Only this can lead to policy change that impacts the heart.
Earlier this year, as a legislative attorney and policy drafter, I worked alongside a team of legal advocates and leaders to draft the “Faith By Plate Act,” which mandates halal and kosher meals are made available in public schools, corrections facilities and hospitals. Bringing Agudath Israel of Illinois and the Muslim Civic Coalition together to get the legislation passed required Muslim and Jewish cooperation. In spite of deep political differences at the time, we focused on commonalities, a way forward and the interdependence of two communities.
Last year, our team of advocates again came together to help protect children in schools who were being bullied due to their ethnic and religious identities. Through the efforts of leaders from all faith communities, we worked together to pass the Cross-Cultural Mediation in Bullying Act, through which victims can educate bullies on why bullying based on identity is so dangerous.
Academic institutions are tasked with developing the world’s future leaders — and leaders do not cower from conversation.
Universities must put forth new methods of engagement focused on exchanging ideas and histories that protect freedom of speech. The issues facing our world requiring peace are far too important, and we need all hands on deck — thinkers, teachers, policymakers and yes, students.
Maaria Mozaffar, legislative attorney, western suburbs
Rapper is being a nuisance
Adam Kelly, aka Adamn Killa, could find better ways to send a political message. In taunting Chicago police and disrupting their efforts in real time, Kelly is not sending a message but simply self-promoting.
Unlike federal agents deployed here, CPD officers are not masked and not behaving like “Nazi” soldiers. His pushing the boundaries with police is potentially dangerous to bystanders, the officers and Kelly himself. A police officer’s job is hard enough already.
While not acquainted with his work, perhaps Kelly is a talented artist with a bright future. I wish him well. Still, Kelly can find a better way to further his career by means other than putting himself and others at potential risk.
Terry Takash, Western Springs
Air traffic control history
Our air traffic control problem may have been exacerbated by the current government’s shutdown, but the cause can be traced back 44 years to Ronald Reagan’s firing of 11,000 air traffic controllers.
Because his union-busting order banned them from ever being rehired, our airports have been woefully understaffed since 1981.
Richard Wetzel, Old Town
Durbin did right thing
Dear Sen. Dick Durbin,
Thank you for your courage and common sense — so sorely lacking in our political landscape — in voting to “open” the government. Clearly, there is more harm than good in keeping the government hostage over a single, though important, issue.
Contrary to certain commentary I have read, you put statesmanship over politics. Thank you!
Jeff Mercer, Chicago