Chronic absenteeism rising in Mississippi

The Mississippi Department of Education released a report stating that chronic absenteeism is becoming a problem for Mississippi.

The amount of students with excessive absences has grown from 13 percent in 2019 to 28 percent in 2022.

MDE states that this jump is likely because of the COVID-19 pandemic as students are continuing to adjust to being back in school.

According to MDE, chronically absent students are more likely to fall behind academically and less likely to graduate from high school.

While chronic absenteeism is a national issue, Jackson County Superintendent Dr. Strycker wants to encourage students to show up. “Kid’s need a reason to come to school. For many it’s academics, but for me it was athletics. Whatever that reason we need the young people to connect to something or somebody in school. Of wanting to go to school, to be motivated… self-motivated to go to school. But there is no way around that. We need the parents to support us. We need the parents to be on board with that… of helping their child connect to something.”

MDE plans to relaunch a statewide attendance campaign in June to reduce absences to five per student.