Social distancing is a thing of the past. Flights are full and stadiums are sold out. Masks are sometimes worn, by a few. And while it often feels as though life has largely moved on from the pandemic, students, many of whom spent crucial adolescent years learning online, have not.
Four years later, schools are still recovering, with chronic absenteeism becoming a more widespread issue following the return to the classroom after remote learning. In March 2024, a New York Times piece examined the reasons why school absences have “exploded,” citing research from the American Enterprise Institute that found 26 percent of public school students were considered chronically absent in 2023 — a 15-percent increase from prior to the pandemic.
The reasons vary from parents being more casual with their family vacation planning to increased sick days as sickness etiquette has evolved in the last few years. And though the causes range in severity, the effects on the classroom are significant. “Most teachers are just very frustrated and feel like when the kid does finally show, they don’t have time to catch them up, understandably,” Avery*, a high school principal in Brooklyn, tells PS. “They just feel kind of hopeless.”
Avery, whose name has been changed for anonymity, has worked in New York City public schools for over a decade. She started out as a special education teacher before working her way up to being a principal. She says recent data on chronic absenteeism is in line with what she’s observed in the last few years.
“Pre-pandemic, I was in charge of special-ed for about seven years, and I had one kid over that whole time who had severe absenteeism because of his mental health,” Avery says. “Since then, I have seen probably 15 to 20 kids like that.”
There are causes, like rogue vacations, that can be more easily addressed over time. “Families are taking kids on vacation whenever it’s convenient for them because they were like, ‘Oh, my kid can learn online. I listened to what school was like then during the pandemic. I can just teach them, and they’ll catch up,'” Avery says.
When students aren’t coming in due to mental health reasons, however, it presents a greater challenge.
Avery recalls one student who was on an honors track, leagues ahead of his peers in terms of test scores and credits. But after losing his mother due to COVID early on in the pandemic, the student struggled. “He and his dad both lost their sense of reality almost,” Avery says.
While the student was shy before the pandemic, afterward he became a “totally different version of the kid that they knew,” she says. He always kept his headphones on, sitting in the front of the classroom alone. Over three years, the student ended up coming to school for one month, in addition to one summer school session. And while he was once on track to graduate a year early, his graduation is now in jeopardy.
“The people who do have the tools in the toolbox are in your kid’s school.”
Avery has observed parents feeling a greater, “more intense” empathy for their children and their mental wellbeing, but she worries that they don’t always understand how the school can tangibly help. “They don’t have the tools in their toolbox, and the hardest thing that I have dealt with is trying to explain to parents that the people who do have the tools in the toolbox are in your kid’s school,” she says. “We have trained mental health professionals here every day to support your child. We just have to get them out of bed and here.”
For students who may have chronic absenteeism as a result of mental health challenges, the school will work with a student to tailor their schedule or place them in a smaller classroom. In the case of the aforementioned student, Avery says psychiatrists were sent to the home and faculty members delivered the family groceries. “We were just trying to do everything we could to get him to come to school,” she says.
Still, getting students to school can sometimes only be half the battle. Avery says many students have had to adjust to firmer due dates because of the extended time they were given to turn in assignments during the pandemic. “All of us, as educators, had kids at home having to change their uncle’s IV and whatnot, so none of us had strict deadlines about when assignments were due during the pandemic,” she says. “We had so much leeway intentionally, and for all the right reasons. And so, now we’re in this mindset shift — with teachers too, but especially for the kids.”
Avery adds it’s been especially challenging for rising high schoolers who went to middle school online, since high school has higher stakes and consequences. “That’s been very hard to unlearn,” she says.
But educators still maintain hope, and for all the flack that Gen Z receives — they’re entitled and lazy and the list goes on — Avery describes them as being creative thinkers. “They are able to make so many more connections to what’s happening outside of what we’re doing in class,” she says. “As an educator, it’s so much fun being able to make those connections with them.”
And yes, they are big on boundaries, but Avery wonders if that’s so bad: “They are so much better about speaking their needs and advocating for themselves, which is so valuable. That could be called ‘entitled,’ but is it just communicating your needs more clearly?” She adds, “Sure, we could work on the tone, but other than that, you’re telling me that you need something. That’s really helpful, rather than just shutting down.”
That sort of exchange — and communication of needs — may be key to moving forward, Avery says. In education, so often is the focus on the importance of strengthening literacy and math skills, which are undoubtedly crucial, but Avery also stresses the value in socializing.
“You aren’t going to just learn that from your parents — you have to learn that in school,” she says. “That’s something I really try to work on with our teachers: making sure that when we’re working in groups, we’re talking about the meta of why working in groups is important. I hope and wish that is a direction education goes in. There’s so much obsession around testing, especially in low-income, low-performing schools because that’s how you get your funding, and we forget how important the social aspect is to schooling.”
Kelsey Garcia is the associate content director of PS Balance, where she oversees lifestyle coverage, from dating to parenting and financial wellness. Kelsey is passionate about travel, skin-care trends, and changes in the social media landscape. Before joining the PS team more than eight years ago as an editorial assistant, she interned at Elle and Harper’s Bazaar, among other publications.