Nearly one in four students at New Trier High School was chronically absent in fall 2022, but that rate plummeted 65% after the school implemented a comprehensive attendance strategy, according to a new report from the Illinois Policy Institute. The wealthy north suburban Chicago district's success in fighting absenteeism stands out as the rest of Illinois continues to struggle with a statewide attendance crisis. The case shows that explicit expectations and accountability measures can dramatically improve student attendance, even in districts where traditional socioeconomic barriers aren't the main issue.
In the first 50 days of the 2022-23 school year, just over 24% of New Trier students were chronically absent—defined by state law as missing 10% or more of the school year for any reason. After reforms took effect, that rate dropped to about 8.5% in the first 50 days of 2023-24. The improvement helped New Trier regain its "exemplary" designation from the Illinois State Board of Education for 2024-25, which it had lost in 2023 largely because of the absenteeism problem. Meanwhile, the state overall saw 28.3% of all public school students chronically absent in 2022-23 and 26.3% the following year. In 2025, one in four Illinois students remained chronically absent.
The report describes how New Trier created an attendance committee of 18 teachers and administrators in spring 2023 to develop a comprehensive strategy. The reforms included an attendance handbook detailing explicit expectations, parent responsibilities, intervention procedures, consequences for excessive absences, and support systems. The school also created Graduating Class Teams—groups of administrators and specialists including psychologists and social workers—that provide academic and social-emotional support throughout a student's high school years and intervene early when attendance becomes a concern. A tiered intervention system tracks attendance with early-warning indicators, parent outreach, and targeted support for students accumulating chronic absences.
New Trier Township High School District 203 is one of Illinois' wealthiest school districts, yet it faced the same post-pandemic attendance problem as districts across the state. The report notes that while health concerns, transportation barriers, family issues, and housing instability are often cited to explain absenteeism—many of them tied to low incomes—New Trier didn't face most of these challenges. The district had to look beyond traditional socioeconomic explanations. Its experience suggests that attendance expectations and accountability can play an important role in improving attendance, regardless of a district's wealth. The school experienced heightened absenteeism after the COVID-19 pandemic and worked actively to keep students in class, creating what the report calls "a culture of attendance."
While New Trier doesn't face many of the same challenges as less affluent districts, its dramatic turnaround offers a potential model as Illinois grapples with persistent attendance problems statewide. The reforms centered on clear expectations, early intervention, and consistent consequences—strategies that could translate to other contexts. The key takeaway: even when economic barriers aren't the primary driver, schools that set explicit attendance standards and back them up with support systems and accountability can see major improvements.