Teachers confront half-empty classrooms as virus surges

By CAROLYN THOMPSON
Associated Press

Teachers around the U.S. are confronting classrooms where as many as half of students are absent. That’s because they have been exposed to COVID-19 or their families kept them at home out of concern about the surging coronavirus. The widespread absences have only added to the difficulty of keeping students on track in yet another pandemic-disrupted school year. Tabatha Rosproy is a teacher in Olathe, Kansas, and the 2020 national Teacher of the Year. She says teachers often have to reteach material when absent kids return. Some of the country’s biggest school systems report absentee rates around 20% or slightly more. Some individual schools are seeing far higher percentages.