The "school absenteeism" crisis in the US

According to the New York Times on March 30, a few years ago, a worrying phenomenon began to spread in American education: Students did not go to school.

This is not unusual or surprising. Schools closed in the spring of 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic began to spread, and some schools did not fully reopen until the fall of 2021.

COVID-19 quarantines are still widespread, and many people think it will take time to reestablish previous school routines.

But surprisingly, little has changed since the pandemic was brought under control. Before the pandemic, about 15% of American students were chronically absent, meaning they missed an average of 18 days of school for any reason during the school year. By the 2021-2022 school year, that number had jumped to 28%. Last school year, the number of students who were absent was 26%.

In interviews, many educators said the problem has continued this school year.

There are many reasons for in-class absences: illness, health, mental health, transportation issues, according to school leaders, counselors, researchers, and parents. But behind it all is a fundamental shift in the value families place on schools and the culture of education during the pandemic.

To some extent, this is a problem that society at large has faced since the pandemic. Anyone who works in an office with a flexible remote (online) work policy will be familiar with the feeling: You show up diligently, but your colleagues don’t. What’s the problem?

Something similar may be going on in schools.

Although schools remain open, in-person classes and sports and other extracurricular activities have resumed in full, the previous stability appears to have changed.

Another problem is that teachers are also showing up less often, often due to burnout at work or because of the difficulty of having to stay home when they are sick since the pandemic.

Additionally, some schools have maintained their pandemic-era policies on online learning, creating the illusion that in-person classroom learning is unnecessary.

The high absenteeism rates help explain why American students as a whole have failed to make up for the learning gaps caused by the pandemic. Students who have fallen behind may not want to go to school, but being absent from school also deepens their learning gaps.