A report out of Alabama finds that about 5,000 students seem to have wholly disappeared from the school system and none have appeared in class or logged in for online classes.
These students are at serious risk as it is likely it will be very hard for them to catch up to their age level once schools open normally again.
“It’s a very difficult year instructionally and that doesn’t even touch the surface on the issues we will have with these 5,000 students who are not in school and we don’t know where they are,” state Education Superintendent Eric Mackey said according to the New York Post.
State officials are also worried that the missing students will also impact the 2021 education budget because dollars are assessed according to the number of students.
The Post adds:
Mackey said some of the missing students may have enrolled in private schools.
Others have returned, but too late for the official enrollment count, which ends each year 20 days after Labor Day.
“I have every expectation that once the pandemic ends, all of those students will come back,” Mackey said.
“The instructional problem will exist,” he said, but he hopes the potential money problem will be averted.
Mackey added that trying to get many of these students caught up will pose a serious problem.
The official added that the loss is striking.
“It’s widespread across the state,” he said. “Only a couple dozen districts grew at all.”
You can be sure that every other state is experiencing this issue to one degree or another.
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