The Attendance Commission, created by Public Act
099-0432 in 2015, is charged with generating recommendations to help prevent
chronic absenteeism. Those suggestions are compiled and sent to the General
Assembly each year in December.
Among the immediate goals of the Commission are to look
at what constitutes an absence and chronic absenteeism, develop better data
systems to track and monitor absenteeism across the state, craft multiple
measures for reporting absences, and improve responses to challenges presented
by chronic absenteeism.
A list of questions to assist those who wish to submit
public comments is available here.
Board members and administrations should consider the local impacts of
potential attendance policies and what solutions have been shown to improve
attendance figures at their schools. Additionally, school officials should
think about how they have approached attendance issues with regard to special
student populations and what type of coordination with community stakeholders
could be used to improve attendance numbers.
This will be the third and final public hearing of the
Commission before the end of the year.
The panel was scheduled to ensure that school administrators and board
members have an opportunity to share their opinions on attendance-related
matters before the final report is submitted.
The hearing will be led by Chairwoman Antoinette Taylor
and commissioners Jennifer Gill, superintendent of Springfield CUSD 186 ; Scott
Wakeley, superintendent of Bradley-Bourbonnais CHSD 307; and Deanna Sullivan,
IASB director of governmental relations. A full list of Commission members is
available on the Illinois
State Board of Education’s website.
For more information about the Illinois Attendance
Commission and the Attendance Works campaign, click
here.
The attendance hearing is open to the public, but if
guests wish to attend other Conference-related events and activities, registration
is required.