Student absences spiked since the year 2021-2022, unsurprisingly this was the year school returned after the outbreak of COVID-19. However, it is now four years later and the absences have not gone back to normal. Begging the question of will school attendance go back to normal. Even with snow days, cold days, and mass sickness, teachers wonder about the leading reason for these absences and how it’s been affecting students’ grades and their success.
“I’ve had to skip lessons,” math teacher Karen Kurcz said. “I’ve had to reformulate lessons to make them fit better or be shorter or quicker or less intense.”
Some students may say or think that nothing is going on in their class. However, teachers know there’s always something happening, and being present is a lot more than just schoolwork.
“Student absences are a big issue in school…when students are constantly getting out of a class because they think nothing’s going on. In my mind, I know all the math classrooms, there’s always something going on, and in most classrooms, something is going on, whether they think it’s relevant or not,” math teacher Heather Hugg said. “It could be just team building, it could be just communication skills or collaborating with others, but to me, being out of class, you’re missing that collaboration time. You’re missing communicating with others. You’re missing instruction.”
Taking a break from school due to stress and missing days of school causes more harm than good.
“They miss out on a lot of important information and routines and lessons and stuff, then it makes it difficult for them to make up the work. It cuts back,” Kurcz said. “I commit to mornings, and I commit to after school and it’s a lot on teachers to have that extra time for students to make up work.”
Teachers wonder if the type of class being taught affects the number of absences in their class. AP classes compared to normal core classes or even electives.
“I think electives probably get a lot more absences. You know, maybe not the hardcore classes. But again, so then, are they absent because they’re actually sick or because they just want to miss? There’s more to teach students than just academics. It’s showing up and being on time. It’s work ethic,” Hugg said.
During the second trimester, the school missed many days, whether it was a Monday off for teacher meetings or a holiday, in that same week there were multiple snow days and cold days. To make matters worse, there was an outbreak of illness throughout the school, causing over 200 absences on count day, setting every teacher’s agenda off.
“Now, if it is the snow days and the cold days or the huge absence “break out”, then I often just have to shift my schedule, and then we don’t get as much content taught in math. That’s a huge issue, because math builds on itself, and so the more you don’t cover, that affects the next chapter, the next lesson, or even the next year,” Hugg said.
