COLUMBUS – Students in Ohio and elsewhere have been absent at alarmingly high rates since schools reopened after COVID-forced closures.
Nationwide, more than a quarter of students missed at least 10% of the 2021-22 school year. Before the pandemic, only 15% of students missed that much school.
In Ohio, the rate of chronic absenteeism increased by 13.5% between the 2018-19 and 2021-22 school years, according to data compiled by Stanford University education professor Thomas Dee in partnership with The Associated Press.
The chronic absenteeism rate in Ohio schools during the 2021-22 academic year was 30.2%, or approximately 496,000 students, Dee’s survey said.
Chronic absenteeism in Ohio schools
2018-19 16.7%
(enrollment 1.655 million)
2021-22 30.2%
(1.643 million)
Source: Stanford Univ. via Associated Press
All told, an estimated 6.5 million additional students were chronically absent.
The analysis is based on the most recent data available, from 40 states and Washington, D.C. It provides the most comprehensive accounting of absenteeism nationwide.
The absences come on top of time missed during school closures.
They cost crucial time in classrooms as schools work to recover from massive learning setbacks.
Absent students miss out not only on instruction but also on all the other things schools provide — meals, counseling, socialization.
In the end, students who are chronically absent — missing 18 or more days a year, in most places — are at higher risk of not learning to read and eventually dropping out.