280,000+ Missing Students - where are they?

[Anonymous]

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/pandemic-missing-kids-didnt-back-school-96996853

To assess just how many students have gone missing, AP and Big Local News canvassed every state in the nation to find the most recently available data on both public and non-public schools, as well as census estimates for the school-age population.

Overall, public school enrollment fell by over 700,000 students between the 2019-20 and 2021-22 school years in the 21 states plus Washington, D.C., that provided the necessary data.

Those states saw private-school enrollment grow by over 100,000 students. Home-schooling grew even more, surging by more than 180,000.

But the data showed 230,000 students who were neither in private school nor registered for home-school. Their absences could not be explained by population loss, either — such as falling birth rates or families who moved out of state.

Some of the children are probably young, delayed the start of kindergarten and just ... haven't started yet. Some are probably high school or middle school dropouts. At the beginning of the pandemic, everyone was concerned about the missing students. Now? People have moved on. But those kids lives' have been changed, probably for the worse.

[Anonymous]

Really unfortunate. Best case scenario, they're homeschooled and their parents haven't reported them, but that's unlikely to account for all 280,000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/pandemic-missing-kids-didnt-back-school-96996853

To assess just how many students have gone missing, AP and Big Local News canvassed every state in the nation to find the most recently available data on both public and non-public schools, as well as census estimates for the school-age population.

Overall, public school enrollment fell by over 700,000 students between the 2019-20 and 2021-22 school years in the 21 states plus Washington, D.C., that provided the necessary data.

Those states saw private-school enrollment grow by over 100,000 students. Home-schooling grew even more, surging by more than 180,000.

But the data showed 230,000 students who were neither in private school nor registered for home-school. Their absences could not be explained by population loss, either — such as falling birth rates or families who moved out of state.

Some of the children are probably young, delayed the start of kindergarten and just ... haven't started yet. Some are probably high school or middle school dropouts. At the beginning of the pandemic, everyone was concerned about the missing students. Now? People have moved on. But those kids lives' have been changed, probably for the worse.

I think all the possibilities mentioned could easily add up to the deficit.

[Anonymous]

You can lead a horse to water...

[Anonymous]

Some were probably abused to death, some are just sitting home, more will be enrolled next year or have dropped out.

I know a very high risk family that didn't enroll their kid in kindergarten for months during the pandemic. It was just by luck that they got the attention of government and nonprofits that made it happen. If they'd flown a little bit further under the radar (eg if the parents had been slightly less violent and mentally ill) they probably wouldn't have enrolled the kid at all that year and this is a kid who REALLY needed a safe place with eyes on him and who wasn't going to learn anything at home unless it was from a TV show.

[Anonymous]

I wonder if some of those children never existed in the first place.

Certain school districts are notorious for trying to pad their numbers, failing to acknowledge transfers, etc.

[Anonymous]

Most are dropouts, or their parents never put them back in school (not home schooling).

There was a news report about DCPS officials doing wellness checks on some of the missing students when they didn't return after Covid closures ended. It's a difficult job, and I'm sure not every district in the US has the personnel to do direct contacts.

[Anonymous]

We moved ours to an online virtual.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We moved ours to an online virtual.

Then you're not missing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some were probably abused to death, some are just sitting home, more will be enrolled next year or have dropped out.

I know a very high risk family that didn't enroll their kid in kindergarten for months during the pandemic. It was just by luck that they got the attention of government and nonprofits that made it happen. If they'd flown a little bit further under the radar (eg if the parents had been slightly less violent and mentally ill) they probably wouldn't have enrolled the kid at all that year and this is a kid who REALLY needed a safe place with eyes on him and who wasn't going to learn anything at home unless it was from a TV show.

Kindergarten isn’t required under Virginia law. You aren’t a truant until 1st grade

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some were probably abused to death, some are just sitting home, more will be enrolled next year or have dropped out.

I know a very high risk family that didn't enroll their kid in kindergarten for months during the pandemic. It was just by luck that they got the attention of government and nonprofits that made it happen. If they'd flown a little bit further under the radar (eg if the parents had been slightly less violent and mentally ill) they probably wouldn't have enrolled the kid at all that year and this is a kid who REALLY needed a safe place with eyes on him and who wasn't going to learn anything at home unless it was from a TV show.

Kindergarten isn’t required under Virginia law. You aren’t a truant until 1st grade

This wasn't Virginia.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if some of those children never existed in the first place.

Certain school districts are notorious for trying to pad their numbers, failing to acknowledge transfers, etc.

Read the article. They used year over pre-pandemic from the same states pre-COVID. This is 280,000 kids above the number that got lost before the pandemic. And this is only 21 states. Illinois and Texas, among others did not provide data.

[Anonymous]

Most of them are probably homeschooling. It’s a bit hard for the government to knock on the door now and say, “where is your kid? Why haven’t you registered them? We don’t trust that they’re safe here with you, or learning enough.” when they’ve literally forced parents to keep their kids at home for 1-2 years and didn’t seem concerned whether the kids were safe at home or learning enough during that time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if some of those children never existed in the first place.

Certain school districts are notorious for trying to pad their numbers, failing to acknowledge transfers, etc.

Read the article. They used year over pre-pandemic from the same states pre-COVID. This is 280,000 kids above the number that got lost before the pandemic. And this is only 21 states. Illinois and Texas, among others did not provide data.

Well a lot of families moved to Texas recently so if Texas didn’t report then that might be where a lot of the kids are.

[Anonymous]

They can't find them because they are too busy hounding current families about truancy laws when their enrolled kids miss too much school due to illness.