Students Missed An Average Of 15 Days Quarantining Last School Year
A new poll found that the average public school student missed at least 15 days of school last year due to quarantines.
It’s well known to most Americans that public education is failing. This notion has been felt for quite some time, but the rate at which students have fallen behind standards has drastically dropped since the onset of the pandemic. Today, it is well reported that continuous closures, and absences – mainly in part to quarantines – had led to this finding. And a new poll, finding that the average public school pupil missed about 15 days of school last year, only exacerbates the plethora of issues with COVID protocols, which the CDC is expected to soon update.
According to a poll shared by The 74 Million, students missed about 15 days of school during the first half of the 2021-2022 school year, solely due to quarantine protocols which required them to stay home for testing positive, or being in close contact with someone who had. Missing that many days of school marks students as being chronically absent during the school year, which is well known to have drastic negative effects on their success in school. As schools look to the future and are hopeful for a return to normalcy, it is expected that quarantines will not affect schoolchildren this coming school year, as the CDC is reported by many major media outlets like CBS to allegedly soon release updated school guidelines which will reject the need to quarantine.
Quarantines had a huge effect on schools last year. While the general idea going into the 2021-2022 school calendar was a return to normalcy, as most public schools were back to in-person learning, quarantine rules and protocols meant that many students and staff missed plenty of school days. On top of that, many were forced to stay home even if they tested negative simply because of being in close contact with someone who had the virus. What’s more, asymptomatic children, who may have felt perfectly fine, were also forced to stay at home as well.
Student absenteeism has been a major, growing concern for schools across the nation for years and years, but there is no denying that this past year was one of the worst school officials have ever seen, all thanks to quarantines. According to this new poll, the average student missing at least 15 days also means that the majority of students were chronically absent this past year. This is alarming to many education experts considering well-known facts that students who miss this much school are at severe risk of falling behind, which is evident in the vast array of data depicting how grades have dropped.
Now that the negative aspects of quarantines on education have been well documented, the CDC is expected to update guidance to make sure that students aren’t missing school because of close contact, vaccination status, or lack of symptoms. Under current directions, the CDC recommends that children and staff not up to date on COVID vaccinations should stay home after they have come into close contact with someone who tested positive. The updated guidelines are believed to change that so that those who fall into this category can remain in school so long as they wear a mask.
Given the fact that many schools across the nation are set to welcome back children within days or weeks, the fact that the CDC has waited so long to update school guidance will likely further the lack of trust many Americans have conveyed over the department’s extensive protocols. Regardless, however, the touted update likely means that most schools will be updating their quarantine guidelines as well. Hopefully, student absenteeism won’t be as big of an issue in the upcoming school year, with what many hope means a reversal of learning loss.
