A third of public school children were chronically absent after classrooms re-opened, advocacy group says

As many as 1 in every 3 public-school students in the US were chronically absent in the 2021-22 school year, according to Attendance Works. Their estimates show 16 million students missed at least 18 days of school that year – up from 8 million prior to the start of the pandemic – based on data from California, Connecticut, Ohio and Virginia