Chronic absenteeism in schools has gone through the roof this past year. According to Edsource.org, high school students have missed more than 10% of school days in 2021. That is a record-breaking number from the previous years. The reason for this? The pandemic. It has taken such a big toll on the students and changed how school was before.
Since COVID-19 started, many aspects about school have changed drastically. At the beginning of the pandemic, everyone was online, so many tests, quizzes and other parts about school had to be tweaked so that we could all be at home doing school. Once teenagers found out that they could cheat on tests and get answers on quizzes, their drive and motivation to really learn the material plummeted. A great deal of teenagers just stopped caring and stopped trying.
When teenagers stop trying and caring about their grades or getting their schoolwork done, their minds drift to thinking “If I’m not doing my schoolwork, then what is the point of even coming to school?” Thus, this adds to the tally of absences on their transcripts.
This has become more prominent because of COVID-19 spreading and affecting many teens in high school. “Due to a high infection rate in the community, students are frequently exposed to someone who’s tested positive for the virus and are required to stay home for up to 10 days. Once at home, many students aren’t finishing their homework packets, so they’re counted as ‘absent’ during that time,” said Cruikshank from edsource.org.
Another cause of the number of absences skyrocketing is because teens have been in school for a semester, and many are growing tired of going to school. Many seniors believe that the second semester is a myth, causing them to sleep in, slack off in classes and stop studying because they have already gotten their acceptance letter into college or have made other post-high school plans. According to cappex.com, the entirety of your senior year does matter. Even after you are accepted, colleges will still look at your grades for the spring semester. If there is too dramatic of a drop in your GPA and they realize you’ve essentially given up on caring about your high school academics, they can (and might) rescind your acceptance.
So, whether you are a senior or a freshman, chronic absenteeism affects everyone in high school and maybe even middle school, and it is mostly because of COVID-19.