It's Not Just The Office: School Attendance Rates "Plummeting" As COVID's "Stay At Home" Effects Linger

We've all heard the stories about workers not wanting to return to the office. 

But it isn't just the adults who are eager to do away with responsibility after the multiple-year free-for-all that was Covid - it's now also the kids. A new report from Fortune details how Covid has "permanently severed something" relating to children and young adults attending school. Attendance is "plummeting", the report says. 

The report details the story of Rousmery Negrón and her 11 year old son, who said that school was "less welcoming" after the pandemic. "Everyone seemed less tolerant, more angry," the report details, and parents were no longer allowed in the building without appointments. As a result, her son missed more than five months of sixth grade. 

Fortune writes about how this one case is symbolic of a larger trend across the country. Students have been absent at "record rates", the report says and more than 25% of students missed "at least 10%" of the 2021-22 school year. Prior to Covid, this number stood at just 15% of students. 

6.5 million additional students became chronically absent, the report concludes, citing a study by Stanford University education professor Thomas Dee in partnership with The Associated Press. After looking at data from 40 states, they found that absenteeism was more pronounced among black, Latino and low income students. 

Students not only miss out on education, but also on steady meals, counseling and socializing, the report says. Those who miss 18 days or more a year are at a higher risk of not learning how to read or dropping out altogether. 

Seven states saw the rate of chronically absent kids double for the 2021-22 school year from 2018-19. 

Hedy Chang, executive director of Attendance Works, a nonprofit addressing chronic absenteeism, told Fortune: “The long-term consequences of disengaging from school are devastating. And the pandemic has absolutely made things worse and for more students.”

Elmer Roldan, of Communities in Schools of Los Angeles, added: “For almost two years, we told families that school can look different and that schoolwork could be accomplished in times outside of the traditional 8-to-3 day. Families got used to that.”

Recall, just days ago we wrote about 66% of finance workers said they would quit if they were forced back into the office. The revelation came as part of a survey published this week by Deloitte, reported on by Banking Dive. 

We have also been writing about how Wall Street banks have been mandating that their employees come back to the office now that the Covid hysteria has subsided. In March 2023, we wrote about how the era of working from home was drawing to a close. Returning to the office hasn't gone over well everywhere. In Seattle, Amazon employees are protesting returning the office due to "climate change", among other idiotic reasons, we wrote about in June.