TRUANCY at Kearns High School has skyrocketed after the pandemic. “An estimated 26 percent of public school students—more than 1 in 4- are truant,” as stated on the Newport Academy website. Truancy is defined as any unexcu

sed absence from school without the knowledge of a student’s caregiver. Truancy can be caused by many factors including: mental health struggles, problems at home, dealing with bullying or harassment, not wanting to do due to pressure from friends, or just simply students don’t want to go.

  THE truancy problem has worsened after 2020, in part because many students did not or struggled to attend for two years. This trend was confirmed by Kearns high school administrator, Scott Wooldridge.  Students didn’t want to come back to school. Before the pandemic, skipping was still being done but not as much. Truancy is a problem everywhere. It is a huge problem at Kearns High School, many students are often absent from class or school.

   FACULTY members are affected by truancies, faculty has to walk into school knowing that they are going to have to yell at students to go to class. This was confirmed by Kearns high school teacher, Kortney Cullimore. “It’s a challenge, I know kids get tired of me telling them to go to class and I get tired of it also,” Wooldridge added. 

   TRUANCY impacts students by lowering their grades and further lowering their motivation.  It causes students to stop learning things that they should be learning to be better in life. Many students just don’t care about going to class causing more problems for them. 

  No one is sure of a way of fixing truancies and skipping classes. There are many factors to truancy but, addressing truancy will take effort from the entire school community. As staff and students look for solutions, the hope is that everyone can work together to help more students stay in class and succeed.