The provincial government has released information detailing how the rate of unexcused absences in the K-12 system has increased since the pandemic.

The numbers were released in an Access to Information request published on the provincial government’s website.

While unexcused absences have increased across all grade levels since 2020, the most notable increases involve junior high and high school students.

That’s particularly true when it comes to chronic absenteeism – or absences for 10 per cent or more of the school year.

From September 2018 to the end of the 2020-2021 school year, the percentage of students in grades 10 to 12 who were deemed chronically absent was between 21 and 25 per cent.

However, that spiked to 33 per cent in 2021-22 and remained in the 30 per cent range right up to the current school year.

Absenteeism in grades 7-9 also increased.

Before the pandemic, junior high students who were absent without an excuse for 10 per cent or more of the school year was between 11 and 13 per cent.

Those numbers started to rise in the 2020-2021 school year, and spiked in 2021-2022 at more than 21 per cent, dropping slightly to 19 cent in the last school year.