Some Missouri school teachers are having trouble getting a hold of students learning online this school year. The topic came up at a state Board of Education meeting Tuesday before the panel approved a regular rule change about attendance hour reporting during the ongoing spread of COVID-19.
“Some of our Kansas City high schools are hovering around 50% attendance right now online,” said member Carol Hallquist.
“This issue you raised is a very concerning and legitimate issue that we are seeing out there,” said Board President Charlie Shields. “I know in one of the districts in northwest Missouri, there are just a lot of kids that have not been found.”
Missouri Education Commissioner Margie Vandeven said some schools are taking additional steps.
“They’re beginning to go door to door, knocking again, trying to locate these children,” said Dr. Vandeven. “The bigger question of the hour will be what do we do in making sure that those children don’t continue to fall behind in their learning and that’s something that we are working on at a national level, at a local level. I think this board will need to spend a lot of time talking about that as well.”
During a legislative committee hearing last week, state Representative Brenda Shields, R-St. Joseph, said a teacher in her district has not been able to reach about 30 of her students over the past five weeks of school. Shields, who is married to Missouri Board of Education President Charlie Shields, said the teacher has called and emailed the students and their parents.
Missouri has more than 900,000 K-12 public school students. Here is a map showing the way the state’s 518 school districts are delivering instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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