(WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- For the first time in more than a decade, officials with Chicago Public Schools say enrollments appear to have stabilized.
Experts say it’s what’s behind the numbers that counts.
CPS lost some 80,000 students over the past 11 years, for various reasons. But this year’s enrollment is about the same as 2022.
Shipra Panicker, a program director with the group Communities in Schools of Chicago, says counselors from her organization talk with students about why they weren’t going.
In some cases, it could be anxiety, she said.
Dr. Judith Allen, the group’s chief operating officer, says they’re fighting attitudes as well: “What happened during COVID is the fact that those students could actually not go to school created this new norm. Students are basically feeling like it’s an elective, I don’t really have to go to school.”
Now they are pivoting to serve migrant children entering the system, too.
School attendance is among the topics of this weekend’s “At Issue,” which airs 9:30 a.m. and 9:30 p.m. Sunday.
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