Nov 17, 2023
We now speak of COVID-19 shutdowns and school closures in the past tense. So why are there still record levels of chronic absenteeism in schools? Chronic absenteeism is defined as a student who misses 10% of his or her classes. Some absentee rates across the country are almost unbelievable. A study by Johns Hopkins University found that "66% of American students attended a school where at least one in five classmates missed four weeks of school." With concerns over COVID fading, absences are still rising. What seems certain is that the stubborn refusal of teachers' unions to allow kids to come back to school for in-person education led to a disconnect between the child and education. Something has been lost that the educational system, such as it is, can't figure out how to find. They can't even identify what it is that is missing. "This fundamental thing has shifted and we can't quite get it back," said Liz Cohen, the policy director at FutureEd,