Danville School District 118 working to improve challenges for students in schools

DANVILLE, Ill. (WAND) — District 118 recently discussed their annual report card from the 2021-2022 school year, and addressed a few issues.

“Returning from COVID, I don’t think we had a true idea of just the social and emotional support that students were going to need,” said Director of Early Learning Programs, Chris Rice.

According to Rice, students aren't coming in ready, and the district is dealing with chronic absenteeism.

“We found the data that 40% of our students in our district are chronically absent which just means students are missing at least 18 — a lot of cases more than that — days absent from school. I think we have been proactive in hiring a home interventionist for every building in the district,” said Rice.

Throughout the struggles, the district has seen improvements in some areas as well.

“We found that our Hispanic and EL population, students are outperforming most of the state in our district so that’s definitely a plus. Last year they really focused on math, and we saw some significant growth," stated Rice. "Typically, we would say 3-5% growth over the course of a school year would be considered significant. Danville High School had almost 6% growth.”

District 118 plans to continue supporting students in all aspects, and preparing them for success.