How does the college account for a drop in grade over time due to illness? How can that be figured into the equation?

Every college my oldest child toured said that an upward progression of grades was important, and not to worry so much about the freshman grades.

It's important enough that they'll notice, but they really like seeing improvement in grades over the years. So he'll be fine.

My DC got nearly all Cs freshman year and then none after that. The counselor played up the 10-12 GPA in her report. The trajectory was important although I do think the GPA knocked DC out of the running for some colleges. It really depends where you are aiming for college. My DC was primarily looking at SLACs ranked 25-50 and was fine for those schools. DC would not have been a candidate for top 10 SLACs.

DS got the toughest English teacher at his HS for freshmen English and got a C in an Honors class, and a C in one other class. He got all As and Bs as a sophomore and is on track to do the same as a junior, taking mostly Honors and AP classes.

Question - any idea whether most schools discount freshmen-year grades or simply look at the aggregate GPA? How much does trajectory and taking a progressively more challenging course load count?