Our Stories

Stand for Children IL PAC, a bi-partisan state political action committee, released today its endorsements for the 2026 Illinois legislative Primary Elections. These General Assembly candidates are endorsed: 

Almost a decade ago, No Child Left Behind was replaced by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and with that change, Illinois overhauled its school accountability system. Instead of judging schools on how many kids passed a standardized test, we moved to look at many other ingredients of school quality. (Here’s a throwback to our […]

In August and September 2025, Stand for Children held a series of focus groups with parents of chronically absent high schoolers and a few of those high schoolers themselves – a total of 15 participants. With rates of chronic absenteeism stubbornly high following the pandemic era, the purpose of the focus group effort was to […]

Every person, regardless of their immigration status, deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. Every child deserves to live without the fear that their home will be raided in the middle of the night. Without the fear that their parents will be taken from them during school drop-off. Every person, whether a citizen or […]

The Occasional Publication for Persistent Education Friends

For Illinois students, it’s been a challenge to get back to regular school attendance after the pandemic. About a quarter of student miss more than 10% of school days. In high school, it’s even worse, with about 35% of student being chronically absent. Stand for Children is conducting four focus groups to better understand the […]