Rachel Buck is a teacher at Derigo High School in Western Maine. It's a small

world district and part of her job is to check in on students.

Today I am delivering school materials, some food, canned goods. It's been 11

months since school districts like Buck's closed their doors because of the

pandemic and a good chunk of them are still doing some form of remote teaching

which has school districts around the country concerned that students aren't

showing up as much. Buck is trying to read students that they haven't heard from

in a while.

Hello. Thank you. Thank you. She drops off some supplies and since she's there

standing on their doorstep she can answer questions that families have

like one from a mom who's deciding whether to send her kids back to school or

keep them at home. Buck says she'll follow up. Let me double check.

I'll be in touch later. Okay. Okay. Thank you. It's a battle for sure when they choose to

be virtual and then don't zoom into classes and it's it's it's trying to find them

sometimes. Pam Doyan is the principal at Derigo High School. Both she and Buck

spoke with Maine Public Radio's Robbie Feinberg. Doyan says dozens of

students have just disappeared. Like they stopped

showing up to their zoom classes or even responding to any attempts at

communication. So we've done call, text, emails,

home visits, home delivery of materials. We've scheduled multiple parent meetings

including evening hours that work best for parents to talk about. You know

your kids not showing up for their zoom. All of this the Herculine effort

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