Absenteeism is up in Massachusetts. Here’s why.

By Marcela Rodrigues and Christopher Huffaker:

They come to this Dunkin’ so often the girls will turn tables into vanities, plugging in curling irons and passing around tubes of scented lotion. Some get to school late, but others never show up at all.

Kids have always skipped class, but this is signaling a much larger problem, here in Chelsea and just about everywhere else in Massachusetts. Since the pandemic, the number of students missing school has surged in a widespread trend that jeopardizes the education of a generation of young people. 

In Massachusetts, more students across all demographics are ditching, from those in lower-income immigrant communities to those in wealthy suburbs, high achievers to chronic truants on the cusp of dropping out.

They’re missing for all kinds of reasons. In Boston, a parent pulls a first-grader out of class to visit family in the Dominican Republic when plane tickets are cheaper. In Lowell, a freshman works 30 hours a week bagging groceries at Market Basket and struggles to keep up in school. A star soccer player in Wellesley misses dozens of classes for out-of-state competitions and clinics.

In just the first few weeks this school year, 62 percent of Chelsea students had already missed at least one day. Absences had also begun piling up in New Bedford (48 percent of students had missed a day), Milford (45 percent), Lenox (44 percent), Arlington (24 percent), and Needham (22 percent).