Recent numbers related to absenteeism show the problem in NL schools has not improved since the Child and Youth advocate first raised concerns more than five years ago.

Numbers provided to VOCM News by the Department of Education show an alarming increase in absences reported in the K-12 school system since before the pandemic.

In 2022-23 number of high school students who were absent for 10 per cent or more of school year rose to an astounding 67.8 per cent. That’s up from 48.8 per cent in 2018-19.

Nearly half (49.9%) of all students in the K-6 system were reported to be absent for 10 per cent or more of the school year—up from 22.9 per cent in 2018-19.

In Junior High the numbers rose from 34.7 percent to 60 per cent in three years.

Education officials have been focused on absenteeism in recent years, while the former Child and Youth Advocate Jackie Lake Kavanagh issued a report on chronic absenteeism in the school system back in 2019.

“When you have children who are disconnected from school, who are missing out on those opportunities, one of the things we found in our research is that they’re at risk for all kinds of other things” Lake Kavanagh told VOCM News at the time. “It doesn’t mean that this causes, but oftentimes this goes along with all kinds of other risk factors. And you see…higher rates of poverty, you see risk factors around drug use, you see risk factors around teenage pregnancy.”