The Regional Office of Education (ROE) presented its fiscal 2025 annual report to the Kane County Public Service Committee, highlighting professional learning, student services, safety work and efforts to expand career pathways.

The ROE representative said the office recorded 1,841 workshop participants, fingerprinted 4,250 people through the office, administered about 520 high-school equivalency (GED) tests and received 3,615 items through student services channels. The office also reported just under 2,500 home visits and 336 health and life-safety school visits in the year.

On student support programs, the ROE highlighted McKinney-Vento services for students experiencing housing instability and described the youth-voices forum, a partnership with the health department that convenes students to surface candid feedback that drives district-level policy changes. “That [youth voices forum] is a partnership we have with the health department… and a lot of times their conversations and their comments actually do drive policy in their home-school districts,” a committee member praised during discussion.

Truancy and referrals: the ROE noted changes to statutory definitions and district-level processes. The representative explained districts are expected to run local MTSS-based attendance programs before referring to the ROE; the ROE intervenes when a student meets the statutory threshold (about 9% of the school year unexcused absences) and provides tiered supports with schools and families.

Career and technical education (CTE): committee members discussed workforce needs and shared examples of regional CTE and dual-credit programs, including partnerships that let districts share specialty tracks (for example, welding, automation and nursing pathways). The ROE representative said some programs are using virtual reality and augmented reality tools to expose students to trades and technical roles and that the ROE is expanding connections with career centers and community colleges.

Juvenile Justice Center (JJC): the ROE described an intergovernmental agreement to deliver educational programming at the JJC (St. Charles) and said the ROE is piloting alternative delivery and training approaches there.

Funding and operations: the ROE noted typical county support augmented by grants; it signaled budget tightening ahead and said it will continue to pursue state and federal grants to sustain programs.

Committee members asked for per-district percentage metrics for truancy referrals and for homeschooling counts; the ROE representative agreed to provide additional, comparative metrics in future reports.