Canadian kids are missing more school since the pandemic

Hey bud. How you feeling? Tired. It’s a school day for Beth Acton’s 12 year old son, Connor, but he’s not at school. If you’re done napping, you need to log in to check on your school work. OK? Ever since he got COVID the second time, Connor’s been easily fatigued and susceptible to every illness running through his grade seven class. Acton uses the school’s attendance app to report Connor’s latest absence. 145 absent periods this year. I am personally quite worried he’s going to lose his year. Acton’s other two kids, Jacob and Tessa, have also noticed fewer students showing up for school. Sometimes significant proportions of the class are absent, or a third or half of the class is absent at the same time. An exclusive analysis by CBC News suggests this family’s experience is not unique. Rates from school districts we were able to obtain data from revealed there were fewer kids showing up in classrooms than before the pandemic. In the same way that many adults got used to working from home, many kids got used to kind of got out of that routine of going to school regularly. Maria Rodgers is a clinical psychologist. If we think about the many children who started school in during the COVID-19 pandemic when there were frequent disruptions, to some extent absenteeism has become more normalized and and we’re seeing that sort of snowball effect as those kids now go through elementary school. For example, chronic absence rates more than doubled at Toronto’s Catholic elementary schools to 33%. Same story in New Brunswick’s anglophone school district, W to 38%. Some of the highest rates we found were in Newfoundland and Labrador, where 68% of secondary school students were chronically absent. In our own little community here, I see kids that don’t go to school. Don Coombs is president of the province’s Federation of School Councils. If those students miss majority of this school year again, we’ve lost them. The school has to be a safe place that these students, for whatever reasons, are missing school and are going to say, OK, I’m comfortable going to school with the help of a new grant. Rogers is working with community agencies and school boards to support kids getting to school more regularly. We know that academic achievement, more broadly speaking, is one of the top predictors worldwide of of a healthy adulthood, and so it’s important that we’re encouraging regular attendance amongst our kids. Have a good night, buddy. I love you, Which is why Acton’s hoping Connor will be back to regular attendance soon. So, Tara, the stakes are high. What are educators doing? Erica, one thing our investigation found is that governments and school districts are largely not keeping track of this. So until we start to take this seriously, as is done in the US and UK, there’s not a lot schools can do. OK, So what about parents? So with parents, communication with kids is really important. If they’re missing that much school, there’s probably a reason why. So talking to kids about why they’re not comfortable being at school and to schools about what can make kids feel good about getting back into the classroom. Thanks for this. Tara Carmen reporting in Vancouver.