280,000+ Missing Students - where are they?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Prob trafficking

This. Most of you here don’t have a clue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Prob trafficking

This. Most of you here don’t have a clue.

Source? If these 280,000 missing students were trafficking victims there would be data points on that. It’s not likely that’s what happened to most of them. The majority probably simply dropped out to work low-wage jobs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Probably a lot of dropouts who decided to work available jobs and make money rather than go to school, especially high school age.

Likely a large percentage. I actually had someone in a facebook mom group tell me wanting high schools to open in Spring 2021 was racist and classist because then the underprivileged teens would have to quit their day jobs and attend school or drop out and their families would lose the kid's income. Crazy world we live in.

+1 Economics are likely a big part of this, as is inertia. Like anything, it's easier to stay on track than it is to get back on track once you have been away for a while. Those who weren't doing well or connecting at school and don't have the family support to nudge or force them to go back may never get degrees. It sounds like many of you don't care, but I find it heartbreaking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

I agree that many are drop outs. My niece is one of them. My sister enrolled her in online high school and paid the tuition for 2 years but never bothered to make sure she did any of the work. For what should have been her senior year my sister didn't even bother to pay tuition. No one from the public school district ever checked up on her. In the spring the online school contacted my sister and made an offer of my niece taking final exams for a fee. If she passed the exams they would give her a full high school diploma. She passed. I'm sure there are variations of stories like this as well as the more typical stories of parents working and kids not going to school and the system not noticing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

+ 100

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

I agree that many are drop outs. My niece is one of them. My sister enrolled her in online high school and paid the tuition for 2 years but never bothered to make sure she did any of the work. For what should have been her senior year my sister didn't even bother to pay tuition. No one from the public school district ever checked up on her. In the spring the online school contacted my sister and made an offer of my niece taking final exams for a fee. If she passed the exams they would give her a full high school diploma. She passed. I'm sure there are variations of stories like this as well as the more typical stories of parents working and kids not going to school and the system not noticing.

That's a good advertisement for the online school - not sure why you think the public school district should have checked on her when she was enrolled in a different school though.

[Anonymous]

No mystery about this one student and why she "disappeared" from school. She dropped out.

She had a bad time at school in 9th grade. Pandemic came along with virtual schooling and she did BETTER during virtual! Then she had to ge back to in person and she did worse. So she dropped out of school senior year.

In some cases, this wasn’t sudden. Many students were struggling well before the pandemic descended.

Kailani, for one, had begun to feel alienated at her school. In ninth grade, a few months before the pandemic hit, she was unhappy at home and had been moved to a different math class because of poor grades.

Kailani has ADHD and says the white teaching assistant assigned to help her focus in her new class targeted her because she was Black, blaming Kailani when classmates acted up. She also didn’t allow Kailani to use her headphones while working independently in class, something Kailani says was permitted in her special education plan to help her focus.

After that, Kailani stopped attending math. Instead, she cruised the hallways or read in the library.

Ultimately, the pandemic and at-home education relieved the anxiety Kailani felt from being in the school building. Kailani preferred online school because she could turn off her camera and engage as she chose. Her grades improved.

When the school reopened, she never returned.

A Cambridge schools spokesperson looked into Kailani’s complaints. “Several individuals demonstrated great concern and compassion towards her and the challenges she was facing outside of school,” Sujata Wycoff said. She said the district has a “reputation of being deeply dedicated to the education and well-being of our students.”

[Anonymous]

No wondering why this student "disappeared". He's 21! He got a job.

José Escobar, an immigrant from El Salvador, had only recently enrolled in the 10th grade in Boston Public Schools when the campus shut down in March 2020. His school-issued laptop didn’t work, and because of bureaucratic hurdles, the district didn’t issue a new one for several weeks. His father stopped paying their phone bills after losing his restaurant job. Without any working technology for months, he never logged into remote classes.

When instruction resumed online that fall, he decided to walk away and find work as a prep cook. “I can’t learn that way,” he said in Spanish. At 21, he’s still eligible for school in Boston, but says he’s too old for high school and needs to work to help his family.

[Anonymous]

This student is missing because he has a mental health issue. He is severely depressed and is refusing to go to school. No mystery about him; he hasn't disappeared and isn't being trafficked:

Another Boston student became severely depressed during online learning and was hospitalized for months. Back home, he refuses to attend school or leave his room despite visits from at least one teacher. When his mother asked him about speaking to a reporter, he cursed her out.