Absenteeism was an issue at N.L. schools before the pandemic. Now, it's 'really critical,' says child advocate

The province's child and youth advocate says absenteeism was already an issue for children across Newfoundland and Labrador — even before anxiety started to swirl this week about a cluster of COVID-19 cases on Newfoundland's west coast.

Jackie Lake Kavanagh says it's vital to keep gathering information about why kids are missing school. 

Elwood Elementary School in Deer Lake is reopening Wednesday, according to the Newfoundland and Labrador English School District, after it had shut its doors Monday and Tuesday, following a student testing positive for COVID-19. 

However, it appears assurances from public health are not convincing all parents and caregivers to send their kids to school. 

CBC News has learned that only 10 out of 280 students showed up for school on Tuesday at Xavier Junior High, while roughly 10 out of 230 showed up for school at Elwood Regional High School. 

That information comes one day after the district's CEO, Tony Stack, admitted that attendance at Elwood Elementary, before the closure was announced, was "very low."

"I would imagine it was apprehension within the community — understandably so — so the attendance rates were very low, less than 25 per cent," he said at a media conference Monday. 

Absenteeism 'significant problem': report

But Lake Kavanagh's concern about kids missing class began long before schools closed provincewide in March.

In January 2019, the Office of the Child and Youth Advocate released a report that said about 10 per cent — or 6,600 — of the province's children missed a month or more of school on average, a "significant problem," said Lake Kavanagh, with some children missing more than that.

Her department released a series of recommendations that she knows the district had been working on, but Lake Kavanagh said she's worried chronic absenteeism might fall off the map.

"We're in the middle of COVID, [and] a lot of resources are focused on some of the very practical issues around student safety, keeping schools open, and a lot of the other issues that have arisen around that, and so my concern is that this does not drop off the radar. This is critically important," she told CBC's Anthony Germain in an interview Tuesday. 

"Children have an absolute fundamental right to a good-quality education, and they have to be in school."

The absenteeism rate in September 2019 was around 6.2 per cent, Lake Kavanagh said. This year, that number was around nine per cent.

"In some ways I'm a little bit surprised, perhaps, that it wasn't higher than that compared to last year's numbers, especially in light of the issue with school bussing," she said, referring to the school board's plan to cut the number of seats available on school buses by 6,000.

That decision was a particular worry for her, especially after three months at home in the spring.

"I was really, really concerned about that, because if we're starting the school year with children not able to get to school, can't even get to the front doorsteps of the school, that's a big problem," she said.

"When they become disconnected, it becomes harder to reconnect again."

'This is so much more complex'

Lake Kavanagh cites global research that shows that 75 per cent of students chronically absent in Grade 6 will not go on to finish high school, for example.

It's a problem without a straightforward solution, she said.

"Oftentimes, absenteeism is looked at as not a big issue.… It's competing with some really big loud issues in the school system," she said.

To point at schools or the school system and say, 'Tag, you're it,' it's lost from the beginning.- Jackie Lake Kavanagh

"A lot of people tend to look at it as, 'That's a school problem, teachers need to do a better job and administrators need to do a better job of getting students in their desks every morning.' But we know that this is so much more complex."

If a child has significant mental or physical health issues that haven't been addressed, for example, "that's a barrier," she said. So, too, is a parent struggling with a diagnosis, disability or addiction.

"Home can be chaotic for children. There can be family violence, there can be all kinds of issues around school itself [so] that maybe it doesn't feel like it's a safe place.… There's all kinds of really complex issues," she said.

"We can't point a finger at the schools, although the schools are critically important in being a part of the solution. These children's lives are often much more complex than that, and we have to look at holistic solutions to see, 'How do we take down some of those barriers in this province for children?' she said.

"It's not as simple as just getting them to show up."

In the COVID-19 era, Lake Kavanagh said, a heightened sense of worry, as well as the speed of misinformation spread, can also be an issue prompting parents to keep kids out of classes more than necessary.

"Once rumours start circulating, once social media lights up — whether it's accurate information or not — people will often act on that," she said.

"So if people are acting without good information and it may not be accurate, they're keeping their children home from school. Those are concerns as well, especially if there's no basis for those kinds of decisions."

Lake Kavanagh said chronic absenteeism will need involvement from multiple government departments and the NLESD.

"There really needs to be a team effort, and to point at schools or the school system and say, 'Tag, you're it,' it's lost from the beginning," she said. "A much more holistic response is needed."

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