SC schools haven’t been able to reach 16,000 students during COVID-19 outbreak

Thousands of South Carolina students have gone off the grid since the state’s coronavirus outbreak closed schools, a state Department of Education survey found.

Principals identified 16,085 students — about 2% of the state’s public school population — who could not be reached once schools moved to remote learning in late March, according to survey results. At one point earlier in the South Carolina coronavirus outbreak, the number of students unaccounted for was nearly double what it is now. So why is this happening?

School districts were accustomed to dealing with problems related to absenteeism even before the pandemic. Many of the issues students and families face that cause attendance gaps are present year-round, but can be made considerably worse during a public health crisis and economic recession, Department of Education spokesperson Ryan Brown said.

School administrators offered a variety of explanations for why schools lacked communication with students, from logistical hurdles like outdated contact information, to more serious struggles families are facing.

Brown said some families likely moved and will enroll students at different school districts within South Carolina, or in another state. Others could have been sent to live temporarily with relatives because of a lack of child care, or because their essential worker parents were afraid to pass the virus to their children. South Carolina has a significant number of transient students from military or migrant worker families, too, Brown said.

But there is also widespread inequity throughout the state that is contributing to the problem, school leaders say. South Carolina has a large population of rural students who might not have access to WiFi, high-speed Internet, or devices with which to complete assignments or keep in touch with teachers.

Some students can’t attend class because they are working to help cover financial needs. Others are caring for ailing relatives. Some students are poor, homeless, or in foster care arrangements — all of which can make them more prone to having unstable housing in normal times, and much more vulnerable during a crisis.

Not all school districts are facing the same challenges to get in touch with students. Survey results show that some districts reported less than 1% of students missing. In Lexington-Richland 5, a wealthier and high-achieving district, principals said just 0.8% of students were unaccounted for, according to survey results.

Teachers were instructed to keep detailed logs on which students they had not heard from, district spokesperson Katrina Goggins said. If several days passed without contact, school administrators and staff would get involved and try to reach the student. Another form of outreach was the school district’s feeding program, according to Goggins.

“Our school administrators also worked at feeding sites, where they were able to talk to some families they were unable to contact via phone or email,” she said. “Through the work of our transportation department, we were also able to reach some families while delivering our weekly Snack Pack weekend food supplies and to engage others while delivering paper packets, Chromebooks and other instructional materials to families who could not pick them up from schools.”

In Richland 2, where 372 (1.3%) students were marked as absent, the district tried to get ahead of potential issues posed by the shutdown. Teachers developed strategies with school counselors, nurses, psychologists, and social workers to stay connected with students considered most at-risk during school closure, according to district spokesperson Ishmael Abdus-Saboor.

“Some of those plans included continued phone calls, video chats, emails, attempts to reach out to their emergency contacts, mailing letters, talking to friends of the student to see if they had any updates and ways to communicate with the student, and if safe and appropriate, some home visits were attempted,” Saboor said. “If contact was made with students or guardians of students determined to be at academic risk, the students were enrolled in summer enrichment camps.”

But other school districts said 5% or more of their 2019 student populations were out-of-reach during the pandemic:

• Anderson 4 — 176 of 2,861 (6.2%)
• Anderson 5 — 656 of 13,151 (5%)
• Cherokee County — 462 of 8,680 (5.3%)
• Clarendon 2 — 221 of 2,893 (7.6%)
• Dorchester 4 — 191 of 2,265 (8.4%)
• Edgefield County — 303 of 3,301 (9.2%)
• Fairfield County — 132 of 2,588 (5.1%)
• Lexington County 4 (Gaston/Swansea) — 222 of 3,479 (6.4%)
• Marion County — 358 of 4,358 (8.2%)
• Marlboro County — 253 of 3,848 (6.6%)
• Williamsburg County — 209 of 3,374 (6.2%)

The numbers for other Lexington and Richland County school districts are:

• Lexington 1 — 86 of 27,353 (0.3%)
• Lexington 2 — 145 of 9,028 (1.6%)
• Lexington 3 — 62 of 2,089 (3%)
• Richland 1 — 257 of 23,386 (1.1%)

Other school districts said more than 10% of their students could not be reached.

For example, Hampton County School District 2 said it had not been able to reach 76 of its 670 students, or 11. 3% of its student population — the highest percentage in the state. Spartanburg School District 7 said it couldn’t locate 789 of its 7,536 students, or 10.5% of the student population.

In Jasper County, 297 of the school district’s 2,683 students (11.1%) were unaccounted for. The State’s analysis used 45-day enrollment figures school districts reported to the state education department in November 2019.

Jasper County schools superintendent Rechel Anderson said in a statement that the pandemic posed a difficult situation because all levels of the school district had to quickly adapt.

“It is important to understand that this pandemic was an unplanned situation that abruptly interrupted the lives of our students, families and staff,” the statement said. “We realize that the numbers may equate to one of the highest in the state that were reported, but the numbers speak to questions responded to on a survey, but not to the work and actual support extended and provided by our staff, who have done an amazing job!”

Anderson said many Jasper County students were unaccounted for because of inaccurate phone numbers in the district’s database, or because phone calls were not returned. Some other students couldn’t log in consistently “due to difficulty with technology or the lack thereof,” Anderson said. The district also had families facing precarious health or financial circumstances and had to “adjust their living situations” accordingly, she said.

In coming weeks and months, Anderson said Jasper County School District is preparing to offer parents training on how to successfully help their child navigate using technology, and to also provide students with devices and hotspots for remote learning. The district will also work with its mental health counselor, social worker and other mentors to maintain contact with students.

State and district leaders worry especially about students who might be in toxic environments, and have no way to get help.

“The ones we are most concerned with is those students who maybe have a history of abuse or neglect, and that being a reason as to why schools haven’t been able to reach them,” Brown said.

Teachers in South Carolina are required by law to report any suspicion of child abuse or neglect, and they are the boots on the ground the state often relies on to spot child welfare issues. But schools are closed, creating a blind spot that is hard to cover under current COVID-19 restrictions.

The Department of Education will work with the state Department of Social Services in coming weeks to identify any students who were already in DSS’s system, Brown said. The school districts can then use case workers assigned to those children as another touch-point for families who have been out of the picture. S.C. Education Superintendent Molly Spearman is scheduled to meet with the social services agency on Monday, DSS director Michael Leach told members of the S.C. Legislature during a hearing July 1.

What has become clear to many during the pandemic is that schools are much more than buildings and places to learn, South Carolina Education Association President Sherry East said.

“Schools are a safety net,” she said. “Schools are a safe place and that’s been gone for them.”

East said she’s heard from teachers about absenteeism since schools were shut down. One teacher told East that she went searching for a student she hadn’t heard from and found that the student was living in the family car. Even in stable family homes, East has heard of parents being unable to keep up with or understand assignments, but being too embarrassed to ask for help.

But East said the state’s education system and problems deserve attention all the time, not just in a crisis. Compared to the attendance rates schools have in normal times, 2% absence statewide isn’t that bad, she said.

“I promise you more than 16,000 kids a day miss school. And now we want to get worried about them? How about we worry about them all year,” she said.

This story was originally published July 3, 2020 at 5:00 AM.