Chronic Absenteeism Is Changing K-12 Education
1A
NPR
4.3 • 4.5K Ratings
🗓️ 18 January 2024
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Chronic absenteeism has doubled since before the pandemic. Now, more than 14 million kids are chronically absent, according to education advocacy nonprofit Attendance Works.
And this is happening as schools grapple with the lowest reading and math test scores in decades.
We discuss the trend and what it tells us about what's at stake if we don't get kids back to class.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Support for NPR and the following message come from SAP Concur, a leading brand for integrated travel expense and invoice management solutions. |
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| 0:16.0 | 4 years ago, COVID shut down in-person learning at most schools. |
| 0:28.0 | Then as instruction went back to normal, schools expected the kids to come back to the classroom too. The problem? Some didn't. |
| 0:36.5 | Hi, I have to be honest, I'm definitely one of those parents that last year, my daughter |
| 0:40.8 | missed a lot of school. She had just started middle school and coming off of the |
| 0:46.1 | pandemic. I guess it was just tough. I was going through a lot personally and she doesn't |
| 0:51.6 | have bus service so I had to get her to school every day and we just |
| 0:55.0 | fell behind but this year obviously things have changed she's in 7th grade now she |
| 0:59.5 | loves going to school and she did not fall behind academically. I think that there needs to be a much |
| 1:05.2 | more concerted effort on the school district part in making things mandatory for parents |
| 1:11.3 | to be much more involved in their students academic career and I would love to see a change in that and I would rise to the occasion but I think it needs to be something that is mandatory. |
| 1:21.0 | Nearly a third of all K through 12 students, more than 14 million kids, aren't showing |
| 1:25.9 | up as often as they should. |
| 1:27.9 | It's an issue the Department of Education is attacking by providing states with more funding, |
| 1:32.1 | tutoring resources, and after-school and summer programs. |
| 1:36.0 | So what's at stake if kids don't get back in the classroom? |
| 1:39.3 | How are some school systems trying to get students back to class. We get into those questions and |
| 1:44.4 | more after the break. I'm Jen White. You're listening to the one-day |
| 1:48.0 | podcast where we get to the heart of the story. We'll be back in just a moment. Support for this podcast and the following message come from Wise, the account that helps |
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