Are Your Children Showing Up To School? Absentee Rates Soar In Arizona

Fun Fact about me: Through my entire primary education (K-12), I never missed a day of school. I never took a sick day, never took off for vacation, and never just skipped for the fun of it. Heck, I even attended class on Senior Skip Day just to keep that streak alive.

I was obviously an outlier, but attendance even close to that is rare today, and Arizona's having a massive issue regarding it.

Arizona Students are Ditching Education

Recently, a study conducted by The Helios Education Foundation found that a whopping ONE-THIRD of Arizona public school students were chronically absent from their schools this year. "Chronically absent" is defined as missing 10% or more of a school year, which roughly rounds out to 18 days.

Around 30% of first through eighth grade students were absent in the 2022-23 school year, an upgrade from the 34% in 2021-22. These have still reached nowhere near pre-pandemic levels, showing that the COVID-19 outbreak of 2020 did have an effect on students attention spans and care for academics.

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How Can We Fix It?

Obviously, we don't want to live the plot of Idiocracy in the next few decades, so getting kids to school is vital. How can we do it? Well, Murphy Elementary School District, located in Phoenix, has found their answer.

Their absence rates dropped from 50% to just over 25%, and it didn't take much convincing. They noticed that the pandemic convinced students that school just wasn't as important, and so they stopped showing up. The district is adamant that showing families the importance of academics helps greatly. Many of these students aren't doing anything nefarious, just helping around the house instead of learning.

Murphy District has seen a remarkable turn around, and solely by telling parents that their child's time is better spent in school.

[KTAR][Helios Foundation]