KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) — Around 53,000 students have gone missing in Michigan, and one local school official is putting out a plea for the public to help find them.
Kalamazoo Public School’s Interim Superintendent Cindy Green says many of them did not return to class when schools reopened after going virtual during the pandemic. And it’s unknown if their parents transferred them to private or other online schools, or began homeschooling their kids.
And Green fears many of them aren’t at any school.
She says she wants everyone to be aware that it’s a concern and to help if they can.
After years of steady growth in the student population in Kalamazoo because of The Promise, KPS saw enrollment drop by about 75 students last fall.
State Superintendent of Schools Michael Rice estimates the number of students truly unaccounted for statewide is around 13,000, and is calling for legislation requiring parents who are homeschooling to report it to the state.
Reporting by: John McNeill
What about the large number of students that drop out …even without COVID? This has been a decades long 0roblem that Ms. Green and her past administrations have not been able to address.
Why this concern now? And why should we believe that there wi be any changes? There weren’t during their past tenure.
And what are you as a school board willing to do to change this?