school attendance

The number of homeschooled students in Missouri has nearly doubled since the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a study from St. Louis University.

During the first year of open enrollment in Kansas, where schools could allow students from outside their district, Olathe, Blue Valley and Shawnee Mission only accepted a few dozen applicants each.

Kansas City Public schools combined two football teams last year due to low participation. With growing enrollment and a middle school feeder program, Central has its own team again this year.

The annual child wellness report KIDS COUNT found 27% of students in Kansas and 20% of students in Missouri were chronically absent in 2021-2022. At the same time, high rates of children in both states have experience at least one traumatic event.

Schools are still struggling to raise attendance rates and student performance to where they were before the COVID-19 pandemic. Plus, school districts are preparing for a new law in Kansas that allows students to transfer to schools outside the district where they live.

Missouri's education department has released new performance data finding chronic absenteeism remains a problem for many schools. Attendance rates have dropped in Missouri by 10% since 2019, and they're especially low for Black students.

The case centers on Missouri’s compulsory school attendance law, which states that a parent must ensure their child attends “the academic program on a regular basis."

The case centers around two parents, both of whom were sentenced to jail time because their six-year-old children missed too many days of school. Attorneys for the parents argue the state's rule mandating children attend school "on a regular basis" is vague and misleading.

Generally, teachers will “gut it out for the kids” until the end of the year. But a notably different tenor this fall has some Kansas educators speaking out against what they say is a toxic environment.

The Missouri State Board of Education will relax attendance rules next year so school districts still get paid if they opt for hybrid instruction models.

Kansas City Public Schools Superintendent Mark Bedell concedes he’s not sure what it’s going to take to improve attendance.Missouri uses what’s known as…