RIVERSIDE-BROOKFIELD $1.00
Vol. 40, No. 6
Also serving North Riverside
February 12, 2025
Olmsted’s Riverside Page 3
Chronic absenteeism drops in Riverside District 96 using multiple
strategies to keep kids in school By GREGG VOSS Contributing Reporter
Straight Arrows Local gi girls irlls earn Cub Scout honors STORY BY TRENT BROWN, PAGE 10
TRENT BROWN
Hannah Condes (left) and Frances Wetzel pose on the playground at St. Paul’s Parish in Riverside. The girls are the first two in town to join Cub Scouts in kindergarten and earn their Arrows of Light.
Chronic school absenteeism that skyrocketed during and after the COVID-19 pandemic has begun to abate, according to data presented at the Riverside School District 96 Board of Education Committee of the Whole meeting Feb. 5. That’s good, but there’s still more to do, said Superintendent Dr. Martha Ryan-Toye. Chronic absenteeism is “not the day-to-day absences, it’s kids that are missing significant amounts of school,” RyanToye said Friday. She pointed to the state’s legal definition of “chronic absence,” or absences that total 10 percent or more of school days of the most recent academic school year, including absences with and without valid cause, and out-of-school suspensions for an enrolled student. The district tracks chronic absenteeism per trimester, Ryan-Toye said, and in Trimester I of the 2022-23 school year, See ABSENTEEISM on page 8
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