Administrators for Joliet Township High School District 204 told the Board of Education they will pilot targeted, person‑level interventions and schoolwide tactics this year after state report‑card data showed chronic absenteeism remained flat at Joliet Central and rose slightly at Joliet West.

The update, presented at the board meeting by Chad Hallahan and Takara Parker, outlined a mix of casework and schoolwide strategies aimed at students who miss the equivalent of 10 percent or more of the school year — the state definition of chronic absenteeism. “We gave a presentation in January, based on our first semester attendance data,” Hallahan said, describing why the district mined both internal serving‑school data and the state’s home‑school report‑card numbers.

District leaders said the discrepancy between the district’s internal attendance reports and the Illinois report card is caused because the state report card uses a student’s home school; internal reports used the school that actually serves the student. That, administrators said, made internal improvements look larger than the state numbers reflected.

To address gaps the district will:
- Assign administrators a caseload of roughly 10–15 students each at the Central Campus who miss about 10–12 percent of days and provide ongoing outreach and connection to supports (a “Check and Connect” approach).
- Launch “student support tables” at both campuses to greet late students, assess barriers and connect families to services. Parker said the support table pilot will begin at the start of the school year.
- Pilot targeted “tardy sweeps” at Joliet West where students who arrive after the bell will be escorted to a central location for quick conversations and data collection; repeated tardies will trigger tiered responses.
- Work with the Regional Office of Education (ROE) “A LOT” program (student advocates) to assign advocates carrying caseloads (~32 students each) to provide one‑on‑one help and family outreach.

Why it matters: chronic absenteeism is linked to graduation rates and student achievement. Administrators emphasized they will continue longstanding graduation and credit‑recovery efforts but must add casework for students who are just over the chronic threshold. Hallahan said district staff also identified that many chronically absent students miss more than 25 percent of school days, which requires different strategies than the students just above the 10 percent threshold.

Supporting details and context: Parker said the district dissected the chronically absent cohort into bands (10–14 percent, 15–19 percent and so on) so staff could triage approaches. For students who were near the 10 percent threshold, administrators proposed the individualized caseload strategy; for students missing a much larger share of time, the district will lean more heavily on behavioral health teams and outside partners.

Administrators also reported the district’s work to expand communications about attendance to families and to clarify staff roles related to attendance interventions. The district plans to track serving‑school data internally going forward so it can compare “apples to apples” year to year.

Board questions and follow‑up: Board members asked about the influence of medical homebound codes, how mobility and summer attrition affect report‑card counts, and whether the district can compare serving‑school data across years. Administrators said some historical internal serving‑school data are not readily accessible from the student information system but that they will map and track the data going forward.

Ending: Administrators described the proposals as pilots that will be monitored and adjusted. The board did not take a formal vote on the interventions; the presentation concluded with administrators saying they will begin pilots and return with implementation updates.