“Chronic absenteeism, a primary cause of poor academic achievement, is defined as missing at least 10 percent of days in a school year for any reason, including excused and unexcused absences. For example, a student who misses as few as two days per month for each month of the school year is described as being chronically absent. In a school year, that’s 18 to 20 total missed school days.” -AFT Union

Superintendent Deanne Meadows said that 25% of students district-wide currently qualify as having chronic absenteeism. – News Reporter, CCS Board Meeting

In the new Columbus County Schools central office at the CCS October School Board meeting, a topic known as Chronic Absenteeism was discussed, and it’s a growing problem in our schools.

Pre-pandemic in 2019, there was a 10% Chronic absenteeism rate, which the board describes as, late check-in, early check-out, and in some cases full-day absences. Now post-pandemic, the School Board states that the percentage is up to 25%.

This comes as test scores are once again going down in the county, still recovering from learning loss during the pandemic. We want to figure out why this is happening, so we are opening a forum, we want to hear from students, parents, and teachers, why do you think this is happening, and how is it affecting you.

Click the link below to open form:

https://forms.gle/SxbkeDgUbFs8tWn2A

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