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CPS Has Best First-Day Attendance in a Decade

By Rachelle Bowden in News on Sep 9, 2004 3:35PM

Back to School - Photo: www.kadmed.comYesterday more than 392,000 students attended the first day of school in Chicago - the highest first-day attendance in almost a decade. Educators say that it's because of last month's launch of a campaign designed to ensure as many students as possible start the academic year on time. Also, volunteers called parents to remind them that school was starting and in communities where truancy is high they made personal visits to talk with parents and their children.

Officials say that 91% of Chicago's 431,000 students were in attendance yesterday and that last year about 4,900 fewer students made it to school on the first day. It is also 60,000 more than in 2000 and is the highest first-day attendance since Daley took over the school system in 1995

The Chicago Public School system has 600 schools and is the 3rd largest district in the country.