There is a crisis going on in the United States right now. From the year 2017 to 2023 the amount of students that were chronically absent almost doubled, going from 15% to 23%. That is 3,979,000 students out of 17,300,000 that have missed more than 10% of the school year. These kids are the next generation of leaders in this country and aren’t even able to attend their highschool classes. The teens aren’t getting their education and are throwing away their potential for a better life. Why are these kids missing out on pivotal moments in their life?

Students missing school is not a new thing by any means but the rate at which it is happening is unprecedented. In recent years we have had events like the pandemic and an influx of technology, these things have certainly afflicted the youth in negative ways.

What might be some other reasons that kids are skipping all these classes and throwing away their education?

• They are avoiding work Mrs. Porlier, a highschool English teacher at SPASH discussed why kids might be skipping class.“When things get hard it’s an avoidance strategy and when work piles up it makes it harder to go back to class.” She also added “Students might be scared of doing work. They believe that if they don’t do the work they’ve won but it only steals education from them.”

• Poor teen mental health in recent years the nation’s youth has been going through a mental health crisis. “More than 4 in 10 teens reported in 2021 that they felt persistently sad or hopeless. One analysis in Los Angeles found anxiety and depression were the top health-related reasons kids missed class.”(Wong 13) This also loops back around to the first reason as all the work being piled up causes a mountain of stress and anxiety for the kids.
• Bullying it has remained a large issue in schools across America and it can also contribute to the pandemic of truancy. “One of the leading causes of teens skipping school and class before and after the COVID-19 pandemic is bullying.”(AAP 27) Kids at the end of the day want to have fun and be social but, nobody is gonna want to show up to class or school if they get ridiculed and made fun of everyday.

• Boredom A lot of kids at a young age took school way too seriously and later on in their educational journey became burnt out and disinterested in trying. That was the case for a young girl who goes on further to say “When I don’t do nothing, I don’t feel like doing nothing at all,” the 18-year-old said. “So I stopped trying.” (Wong 2) Getting a kid engaged with the material schools teach is hard but it is very important, as it prevents situations like this.
• School is not a comfortable environment When asked “what has to be changed to make you want to attend class? Preston Wadsworth, a student at SPASH who is chronically absent, responded, “make it more of a comfortable environment, allow more talking and play more music.” This could also tie back into making the classroom more engaging for kids. These students don’t always fit the school archetype and require a different approach to learning.

Sometimes though the reasons aren’t just this simple. Parents and other adults not caring about the kid can be a driving force to influence a kid to skip. Or the kid is simply too tired and overworked because of work or other family related events.

You may not realize it but truancy court could also be a contributing factor as to why some kids skip class. Truancy court is meant to correct these chronically absent students back on the right path by punishing them, but in reality the parents are the only ones facing real repercussions. The parents are the ones faced with fines and potential jail time while the kid is just forced to attend some study sessions. This may cause some kids to not fully realize what they’ve done is wrong and encourage them in some ways, such as to get back at their parents who’ve “wronged” them. 

So I wonder is it the students fault for skipping school or is it the parents fault?

I also wonder if there is a way we can stop the influx of chronically absent students?

Majority of parents or adults punish these students for skipping, instead of correcting the issue at the source. When a student is skipping class/school normal punishments aren’t going to be very effective to correct them.A big portion of students skip school because of mental health issues and taking away things or punishing them will only make it worse. To find the solution you have to ask yourself first, “What is troubling my kid so much that they skip school?”