SaskatchewanData shows more elementary and secondary students are missing school across the country, including in the Regina and Saskatoon public divisions. Public school attendance in 2024-25 was nearly 4 per cent lower than in 2018-19Aliyah Marko-Omene · CBC News · Posted: Dec 08, 2025 6:00 AM EST | Last Updated: 8 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 6 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.Data from across the province shows elementary and secondary students are missing more school than they did five years ago. (Bobby Hristova/CBC)Grade 12 student Kaitlynn Carnie says her day starts with a simple question: Can I handle school today? The Archbishop M.C. O’Neill High School student said she first grabs her phone to check on what she would miss if she stayed home, weighing each period like a set of scales. “If I miss, is it going to be a bad thing? Is there an exam that I should be there for?”The 17-year-old was in Grade 6 when the COVID-19 pandemic started and spent a year and a half learning online from home. After she returned to the physical classroom in Grade 8, she often suffered from panic attacks and missed days of school at a time, she said. Grade 12 student Kaitlynn Carnie says she often debates herself about whether it’s worthwhile or necessary to go to school on a given day. (Germain Wilson/CBC)She now considers her mental health when deciding whether or not to attend school, Carnie said.“Being at school a lot can add a lot of strain to you,” she said. “Sometimes you just need to take a day off so you can recalibrate yourself.”Carnie said it’s often deadlines or tests that get her out the door. “If I see that we’re doing notes that day … it makes me want to go less, because I know what’s going to happen and it’s stuff that I can learn on my own at home rather than being at the school itself.”CBC News compiled and analyzed data on school absences across Canada within the last five years and found that across the country, more elementary and secondary students are missing school, including in the Regina and Saskatoon public divisions. Both divisions said several factors are contributing to the increased level of absences. Carnie’s classmate Stacy Dustyhorn, 17, said it’s been harder to be enthusiastic about school since returning to the classroom after the pandemic.
Sask. school absence rates have risen. Students say attendance is different after the pandemic
