Chronic absenteeism is a significant problem in some Winnipeg schools, a new documentary suggests, and one of its creators says he hopes the new film will serve as a call to action on the issue.Kent Dueck, executive producer of the new documentary Absent — produced with the faith-based North End non-profit Inner City Youth Alive — described walking through one school in November 2023.”It had a dystopian vibe to it,” said Dueck, who is also the founder and executive director of Inner City Youth Alive.”It was devastating to see … amazing staff ready to go, ready to teach, and then just crickets and empty hallways and classrooms.”The absenteeism rate at that school in the city’s North End school exceeded 70 per cent, according to Dueck. CBC cannot independently confirm that attendance figure and is not naming the school. The Winnipeg School Division disputes that figure.But Dueck said an “atmosphere of secrecy” has developed around access to attendance data, which is one of the reasons he wanted to go ahead with the documentary project, along with his colleague Sel Burrows, to dive into absenteeism in North End schools.”There’s no way you can’t act on the data that’s out there — when you see these high levels of absenteeism, something has to be done,” said Dueck, who was part of the province’s 14-person attendance task force, which operated from 2019 to 2022.The documentary brings together youth, educators, administrators, community members, parents and Indigenous leaders in Winnipeg to provide first-hand insight into the issue, said Dueck.Data on student absenteeism is hard to come by, but a CBC investigation last year revealed that in many school divisions across the country, rates of chronic absence — the percentage of students who miss at least 10 per cent of the school year, or two full days a month — had climbed significantly since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. (CBC)It’s a problem the provincial government has been hearing about for years, according to Tracy Schmidt, Manitoba’s minister of education and early childhood learning. “I think absenteeism and addressing absenteeism is a complex issue, and I think there are different factors that drive absenteeism in different ways in different communities,” said Schmidt. Though data on student absenteeism is hard to come by, a CBC investigation last year revealed that in many school divisions across the country, rates of chronic absence — the percentage of students who miss at least 10 per cent of the school year, or two full days a month — had climbed significantly since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.Data provided by the Winnipeg School Division for fall 2023 indicated the rate of chronic absenteeism averaged 6.2 per cent from kindergarten to Grade 9, and at just under 13 per cent in grades 10 to 12. Division disputes figureHowever, the superintendent of the Winnipeg School Division disputes some of the documentary’s claims.Matt Henderson says he doesn’t know where the 70 per cent absentee rate Dueck cites at one school comes from.”He says that figure is from a reliable source — he has it that one school has an absenteeism rate of 70 per cent. I’m not sure what reliable source that is — they’re not in our schools,” said Henderson.Henderson says last year, the Winnipeg School Division had a six per cent chronic absenteeism rate — a decrease from the previous year. From kindergarten to Grade 8, the number of chronically absent students in the division — the largest in the province, with approximately 32,000 students — dropped from 2,779 in 2023-24 to 1,807 last year, according to the division. For grades 9 to 12, it decreased from 1,131 to 1,049. Winnipeg School Division superintendent Matt Henderson says last year, the division had a six per cent chronic absenteeism rate — a decrease from the previous year. (Warren Kay/CBC)The Winnipeg School Division does not publish data on specific schools, so its numbers are representative of all schools in their division.”When my team and I first came, there was a practice of dropping students from rosters if they hadn’t shown up,” said Henderson, who took over as superintendent for the 2023-24 school year.”We don’t do that anymore. We keep every student on our roster until we know what their story is.”‘Accounted for’Previous data published in a 2022 provincial report suggests there have been thousands of students unaccounted for — something Dueck said the documentary also explores.”There’s the standard kid who struggles to attend, but there’s also a whole group of kids that are completely gone — like, no one knows they’re not there,” said Dueck. The report defines the “accounted for” as youth who were “previously enrolled in school, are no longer in school, no one has heard from them, and they have not graduated or transferred out of the province.”Education Minister Schmidt acknowledged that was a problem the NDP government has been working to solve with the restoration of cabinet’s cross-departmental healthy child committee. Henderson also acknowledged this issue, and says the Winnipeg School Division is taking a child-by-child approach. “The solution is really focusing on one student at a time — what is their story? Are they known? Are they deeply loved by more than one adult? And then making connections with that family,” said Henderson.”Sometimes that means leaving the confines of the school to really connect to that home.”Dueck says the issue could be as simple as young people moving to different cities, without that move being documented by their previous school.’When you see these high levels of absenteeism, something has to be done,’ says Kent Dueck, the executive director of Inner City Youth Alive and executive producer of the documentary Absent. (Prabhjot Singh Lotey/CBC)But he says Inner City Youth Alive has seen kids who haven’t been to school in years. “We had two students this summer that registered — one was supposed to be in Grade 2 and the other in Grade 4. Neither had ever attended school at all,” said Dueck.”Two brothers came to us last year who were in their teenage years. They hadn’t been in school for five years.”One way his organization has been working to find unaccounted for students and get them back to school is through outreach.”If schools do not do it, we will not change the way this is going right now,” said Dueck.According to Henderson, that’s a responsibility teachers have taken on. “We have 6,000 staff, and we’re asking for all hands on deck, but the real power in that is the classroom teacher making that connection,” said Henderson.However, Dueck suggests schools may not be fully equipped to engage in active outreach, which he says has to happen immediately.”The longer the time between that person drifting away from school and having somebody reach them, the less their chances are fully reintegrating back into school,” he said.The documentary Absent will premiere at Jubilee Place, in Mennonite Brethren Collegiate Institute, on Oct. 1 at 7:30 p.m.Documentary to put spotlight on student absenteeismAn upcoming documentary from a faith-based charitable organization that works with underserved youth in Winnipeg’s North End suggests at least one school has student absentee rates exceeding 70 per cent.
High absentee rate in some Winnipeg schools means ‘crickets and empty hallways’: documentary producer
