— VOA Learning English — Education Source: Voice of America Learning English (https://learningenglish.voanews.com/) Licence: Public domain (work of the U.S. federal government, 17 U.S.C. §105) Audio is served by the publisher; Budi does not host or modify it.
0:02Florentine Jean-Baptiste missed school so often that he had to repeat his first year at Medford High School near Boston. Jean-baptiste said, At school you do the same thing every day. He was absent 30 days in his first year. Then the principal of the school did something different. She let students play organized sports during lunch, if they attended all their classes. In other words, She offered high school students a play period that is usually part of the school day for young children. It gave me something to look forward to, said 16-year-old Jean-Baptiste. The following year, he cut his absences in half. Schoolwide, the share of regularly absent students dropped from 35% in March 2023 to 23% in March 2024. That was one of the biggest reductions among Massachusetts
1:06The Associated Press and Stanford University economist Thomas Dee have studied attendance numbers from 42 states and Washington, D.C. They found that years after the school closings from the COVID-19 pandemic, schools in nearly every state are still struggling with attendance. About one in four students in the 2022 to 2023 school year were chronically absent. 10% of the school year. That number represents about 12 million children in states reporting numbers of absent students. Before the pandemic, only 15% of students missed school that often. After spending as much as a year at home during the pandemic many children see school as more than they can handle, uninteresting or socially stressful. Some children and parents
2:18are deciding it is no problem to stay home. That makes completing class work even harder. In all but one state, Arkansas, absence rates remain higher than they were before the pandemic. Still, the problem appears to have passed its highest point. Almost every state saw absenteeism go down at least a little during the two full school years ending in 2023. Schools are trying to identify students with attendance problems so they can help. They are also trying to communicate better with parents. Some parents might not know their child is missing a lot of school or its effects on their performance. Experts say schools must get creative to meet their students' needs. In Oakland, California, chronic absenteeism in public schools sharply rose from 29% before
3:36the pandemic to 53% during the 2022-23 school year. Officials asked students what would make them want to come to class. They answered money and a mentor. In spring 2023, the Oakland School District received a grant to pay 45 students $50 weekly to attend school every day. 60% of those in the program improved their attendance. Zaya Vera is the district's head of social-emotional learning. Vera said paying students cannot continue for a long time, but many absent students lacked dependable housing or were helping to support their families. The money is the hook that got them in the door. A caring teacher made a difference for 18-year-old Golden Tuchekin. She completed her studies at Oakland's Skyline High School this spring.
4:35Coming back to school after the pandemic, she felt lost and anxious. She later realized those feelings made her feel physically sick. She was absent at least 25 days that year. One Afro-Latina teacher seemed to understand her culturally and made Tachiken feel she belonged in class. Tacheken already received good grades. In Massachusetts, Medford High School requires administrators to welcome and talk with students Many of the reasons given for students missing school early in the pandemic are still in place. They include financial difficulty, transportation problems, mild illness and mental health struggles. For example, a study from the University of Southern California said parents reported
5:58that almost one-fourth of chronically absent students had emotional or behavioral problems compared with just 7% of those with good attendance. At Fresno's Fort Miller Middle School, half of the students were chronically absent. Two reasons kept coming up, dirty clothing and no transportation. The school bought a washer and dryer for families to use. It also provided a vehicle to pick up students who missed the bus. Fresno's chronic absenteeism improved to 35% during the school year ending in 2023. Fourteen-year-old Melinda Gonzalez missed the school bus about once a week, so she called for rides from the school vehicle. I don't have a car. My parents couldn't drive me to school, Gonzales said. Getting that
7:13ride made a big difference. I'm Mario Ritter Jr., and I'm Jill Robbins.
This transcript was generated automatically from the recording, so it will contain mistakes — especially around names and places.