RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina education officials recently estimated that educators can’t account for about 10,000 to 15,000 public school students this school year amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lawmakers and educators worry more students are falling through cracks in the system than is presently known, as the coronavirus pandemic upends students’ learning plans and keeps some out of virtual or physical classrooms.
David Stegall, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction’s deputy superintendent of innovation, told lawmakers earlier this month that a survey the state conducted of some districts concluded that the whereabouts of about 0.7% to 1% of the state’s 1.5 million K-12 public school students are unknown.
This happens when a school has lost contact with a student, often because the student dropped out without alerting the school or moved elsewhere without the parent notifying the school or responding to repeated requests to get their kid back in class.
If a student misses at least 10 consecutive days of school in North Carolina, they are typically unenrolled, and the school works to account for them. The education department said in a statement that “unaccounted for” doesn’t necessarily mean the school doesn’t know where a student is or that the student is in danger.
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