As Dade County school officials look ahead to a new year, they’re hoping to see more students in the classroom setting.
Dade Schools’ Director of Federal Programs & Safety Jeremy Roerdink and Chris Davis, Director of Academics & Curriculum sat down with KWN’s Evan Stone Tuesday morning to delve into an often overlooked issue with post-pandemic education; the growing .
Local school officials lament the numbers in Dade County are more profound than their Peach State counterparts.
” In 2020, right before the pandemic,” explains Roerdink, ” 8.1% of students were chronically absent. This past year, 22% across the state were chronically absent, that’s from 8 to 22% and in Dade County, it’s 27%,” says Roerdink, who explains the definition of chronically absent is 10% or more days. “So, we’re in school roughly 180 days, that’s 18 days or more of school unexcused, so we have about a quarter of our kids who are chronic absentee statistics.”
Davis attributes the current poor student attendance rates to the nation’s Covid-19 hangover. ” I really think during the pandemic, a lot of things for us became optional and I think school became optional and that’s one of the things we’re trying to get across to parents. We as parents, we’ve gotta get our kids to show up.”
Roerdink says the emphasis for 2025’s Dade County Schools going forward is greater student presence on campus. “We feel like we could be doing all of the good things; like training our teachers and talking to kids when they’re here, but if they’re not here, present in school, then we kind of feel like we’re spinning our wheels.”
By Vince Lennon