Georgia lawmakers say there is a quiet crisis of absenteeism in public schools. They’re trying to write legislation to fix absenteeism that shot up after the pandemic.

Georgia educators say that when the pandemic kept school children at home in 2020 and 2021, learning in front of computers, many of those children were reluctant to go back once in-school learning resumed.

Absentee rates in Georgia were about nine and a half percent pre-COVID. It shot up to 26 percent during and after COVID. It’s still around 21 percent, says study committee chairman Sen. John Kennedy (R-Macon).

"If they’re not in the seats (at school), then they’re not learning. They’re not going to learn to read. If they're not learning to read, they’re not going to be literate. They’re not going to graduate," said K

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