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Tameka's 8-year-old daughter ties her shoe before running out to play in Atlanta on Dec. 5, 2023. The little girl should be in second grade but has never attended school. Tameka's kids have essentially been out of school since COVID hit in March 2020. They have had a consistent place to live, but nearly everything else in their lives collapsed during the pandemic. (AP Photo/Bianca Vázquez Toness)

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These kids want to go to school. The main obstacle? Paperwork
By BIANCA VÁZQUEZ TONESS - AP Education Writer
Mon,12/18/23-11:02PM , 80 Reads
ATLANTA (AP) — It’s unclear to Tameka how — or even when — her children became unenrolled from Atlanta Public Schools. But it was traumatic when, in fall 2021, they figured out it had happened.
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Deneffy Sánchez, 15, rests on a bed he shares with his mother and little sister just feet away from their roommate's bed in Los Angeles, Saturday, Sept. 9, 2023. In Los Angeles, housing insecurity is one of the biggest reasons kids have missed school since the pandemic and struggle to catch up. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

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At 15, he is defending his home and parenting his sister. One young man's struggle to stay in school
By BIANCA VÁZQUEZ TONESS - AP Education Writer
Wed,11/01/23-11:14PM , 151 Reads
LOS ANGELES (AP) — This was the summer Deneffy Sánchez was supposed to learn algebra, biology and the other ninth grade classes he failed last year because he was too depressed and overwhelmed. But advancing to 10th grade had to take a back seat for now. He had more pressing concerns.
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Rousmery Negrón stands with her son at home in Springfield, Mass., on Thursday, Aug. 3, 2023. When in-person school resumed after pandemic closures, Negrón and her son both noticed a change: School seemed less welcoming. Parents were no longer allowed in the building without an appointment, Negrón said. Punishments were more severe. Everyone seemed less tolerant, more angry. Negrón's son even overheard a teacher mocking his learning disabilities, calling him an ugly name. He would end up missing more than five months of sixth grade. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

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Millions of kids are missing weeks of school as attendance tanks across the US
By BIANCA VÁZQUEZ TONESS - AP Education Writer
Thu,08/10/23-11:01PM , 152 Reads
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) — When in-person school resumed after pandemic closures, Rousmery Negrón and her 11-year-old son both noticed a change: School seemed less welcoming.
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Michael Crowder, 11, reads during an after-school literacy program in Atlanta on Thursday, April 6, 2023. Michael missed most of first grade, the foundational year for learning to read. It was the first fall of the pandemic, and for months Atlanta only offered school online. Michael's mom had just had a baby, and there was no quiet place to study in their small apartment. He missed a good part of second grade, too. (AP Photo/Alex Slitz)

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'Too much to learn': Schools race to catch up kids' reading
By BIANCA VÁZQUEZ TONESS - AP Education Writer
Thu,04/20/23-12:46PM , 147 Reads
ATLANTA (AP) — Michael Crowder stands nervously at the front of his third grade classroom, his mustard-yellow polo shirt buttoned to the top.

“Give us some vowels,” says his teacher, La’Neeka Gilbert-Jackson. His eyes search a chart, but he doesn’t land on an answer. “Let’s help him out,” Gilbert-Jackson says.
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