Ontario Premier Doug Ford visits students at Highfield Junior Public School in Toronto on March 11.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
During the 2021-2022 school year, nearly two-thirds of the students enrolled in the New Haven Public Schools district in Connecticut were classified as “chronically absent,” meaning they missed 10 per cent or more of school days, for any reason. That number is roughly on par with the current absentee data for Ontario, where just 40 per cent of high school students are meeting attendance standards.
But the State of Connecticut took action on the problem years ago, homing in on the 15 school districts with the highest rates of chronic absenteeism. The results have been striking: in New Haven, for example, chronic absenteeism dropped from 58.1 per cent in 2021-2022 to 32.1 per cent in 2024-2025. The progress took millions of dollars, targeted interventions, community outreach and school-level incentives.
The problem of absenteeism (which describes missing school for any reason, including excused absences such as for illness) exploded after the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s an issue across Canada – in Manitoba, Quebec, Ontario and so on – though unlike in many U.S. states, the data in Canada are not centrally compiled and published. But we do know student attendance suffered a major blow during the pandemic and never managed to recover back to pre-2020 levels.
There are various theories as to why this is happening. One is that the pandemic facilitated the complete transition to online learning, and the tools for students to complete their studies without stepping into class are still there.
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Another reason is that the pandemic ushered in a cultural shift whereby students experiencing any type of illness are expected to stay home. Reason three: the uncertainty and fear experienced by parents during COVID-19 had a “YOLO” effect, so parents are more inclined to pull their kids from school for vacations or other experiences. Four: the dramatic increase in anxiety disorders and other mental health conditions among youth following the pandemic means more kids are staying home from school. Five: cost-of-living concerns mean that older kids skip school to watch younger children so a parent can go to work, or opt to work part-time jobs themselves. And six: kids are simply disengaged, disinterested, or disillusioned with school, though that has been true as long as school has existed, and is not specific to the conditions created by COVID-19.
There is also an Ontario-specific issue keeping kids out of class: there are not enough aides or support workers to help out in classrooms that have attempted to integrate children with behavioural challenges. Those kids are being sent home from school or asked to stay home altogether, and other students are missing class to avoid the disruptions and sometimes violent confrontations.
There is plenty of research as to why actually attending school, in person, with other peers is so important to youth development, but no consensus on how to get kids back to school post-pandemic. Ontario’s solution, announced earlier this month, is to tie grades to attendance, allocating 15 per cent of the final mark for Grades 9 and 10 to participation and attendance, and 10 per cent of the final mark for Grades 11 and 12. But this approach would still allow for excused absences such as illness, which would render it ineffective so long as a parent is willing to scribble a note. It also won’t help if kids are missing school because of economic concerns, or if they are simply disillusioned with school and don’t care about marks anyway. Indeed, Ontario’s plan tackles the symptom of absenteeism without addressing any of the root causes.
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In New Haven, schools got students back in class using a multipronged approach. The district was one of the 15 in the state eligible for a new program called the Learner Engagement and Attendance Program (LEAP), which provided funds for home visits for students who were deemed chronically absent. The visits successfully established a relationship between the families and the schools, which provided an opportunity to address the specific reasons why each student was missing class. That outreach, combined with school initiatives such as the establishment of attendance teams, plus student incentives like pizza parties and sneaker-decorating nights, helped to dramatically improve attendance.
Ontario could adopt a LEAP program of its own, but that takes time, dedication and, most importantly, money. The program in Connecticut costs roughly US$9-million per year, and its student population is approximately one-quarter of the size of Ontario’s. But the significant drop in absenteeism in what were once the worst performing districts in the state shows that it’s working. The framework for improvement is there; Ontario’s government just needs to decide if tackling student absenteeism is actually worth the investment.