Much has been said about the children who have struggled academically and socially as a result of being locked out of their schools during the pandemic. But not enough attention has been paid to the students who never came back.

It is estimated that nearly 15 million students were chronically absent during the 2021-22 school year, meaning they missed at least 10% of the school year. In poorer areas, the truancy rate that year was far higher, with 66% of low-income students attending a school with “extreme” levels of chronic absenteeism.