Some parents have noticed that their child, pre-teen or teenager have been avoiding going back to school. NPR posted an article titled: “3 years since the pandemic wrecked attendance, kids still aren’t showing up to school”. In other words, there are many parents out there who have kids that are unable to attend school.
According to NPR, Hedy Chang, the executive director of Attendance Works, says she hasn’t seen the kind of recovery she’d hoped for. “I think people had been a little bit under the false impression that when COVID became more endemic, that that would result in a significant improvement in attendance. And I’m not seeing that.”
In a survey of 21 school districts in rural, suburban and urban areas, NPR found that most districts – from New York City to Austin, Texas, to Lawrence, Kan. – still had heightened levels of chronic absenteeism.
According to NPR, students who are chronically absent are at higher risk of falling behind, scoring lower on standardized tests, and even dropping out. And as often happens in education, students who struggle with attendance are also more likely to live in poverty, be children of color or have disabilities.
Why Students Aren’t Showing Up To Class
Transportation can be a problem. A large school district in Maryland had a bus driver shortage, which made it hard to cover all the bus routes and guarantee transportation for every student, NPR reported. This impacted families who are experiencing higher poverty, who don’t have flexible jobs and may not have their own transportation.
Mental or physical health issues. Students who are experiencing mental health issues, and students who are feeling physically sick, are not likely to want to attend school.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has a report that included data that was collected in fall of 2021. Most schools had returned to in-person instruction by that time. The time spent out of school for many students may have had an impact.
“As we saw in the 10 years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, mental health among students overall continues to worsen, with more than 40% of high school students feeling so sad or hopeless that they could not engage in their regular activities for at least two weeks during the previous year – a possible indication of the experience of depressive symptoms. We also saw significant increases in the percentage of youth who seriously considered suicide, made a suicide plan, and attempted suicide.”
Some Black parents are choosing to homeschool their children. While homeschooling isn’t new, advocates say a growing number of Black parents are educating their children at home so they can exercise more control over what they are taught and how they are treated, CNN reported.
Many made the switch to homeschooling during the pandemic, but interest is growing as national debates over teaching systemic racism and Black history in the classroom continue, advocates say.
Some families say they chose to homeschool because they were living in majority white school districts and wanted to teach their children to have confidence in their Black identity. Others expressed a desire to shield their children from the nation’s polarizing racial climate.
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U.S. Surgeon General Addresses Youth Mental Health Crisis
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