About 28 percent of Illinois students were chronically absent in the 2022-2023 school year. That compares to a rate of 17.5 percent in the last full school year before the pandemic. The rate was 10 percentage points higher among Illinois’ low-income students: 38 percent missed at least 10 percent of their school days in 2023.
A largely unasked question is becoming glaring: Is Illinois doing all it should to use artificial intelligence to make government cost less and work better? So far, the evidence says no.