1,700 students in Miami-Dade and nearly 800 in Broward are considered missing by the public school districts.
These are students who are not logging into online school or showing up for in-person classes. Another 14,000 are considered chronically absent.
Miami-Dade and Broward Public Schools are tackling the problem by using teams of social workers, mental health professionals, and counselors to track down the truants and intervene with their families.
Some parents didn’t know Broward Schools were giving out free laptops, despite dozens of robocalls and emails and massive news media coverage of the laptop giveaways.
Miami-Dade Schools sends its social workers on what it calls “wellness visits.”
To find out how the family is doing, and what are the issues that could be contributing to the absences.
Every case is different for students to be disengaged during this pandemic, from connectivity issues to childcare issues to simply not having a suitable learning environment in the home, so sometimes, intervention is the only way to get kids back on track.
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