“Absenteeism and chronic difficulties that interfere with accessing the curriculum existed before and became more magnified during Covid-19,” Rebecca Mannis, learning specialist and founder of learning center Ivy Prep, told National Review. “What Covid-19 did was take issues that were there before and put them on steroids.”

In his northern-Chicago high-school gym class, 17 of the 34 students on the roster never showed up for the fall semester, a teacher of over 20 years, who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retribution, told National Review. This past semester, 19 kids failed his PE class, all of which cases were attendance-related, he noted.

The teachers and experts National Review interviewed revealed a perception among students that school is more or less optional, largely because it was for months on end. The prolonged shutdowns and remote/hybrid learning models that schools implemented during the public-health crisis had a trickle-down effect that created an indifference to education among many students and faculty members that remains even now that schools have reopened, McCormick said.