She鈥檇 be a senior right now, preparing for graduation in a few months, probably leading her school鈥檚 modern dance troupe and taking art classes.
Instead, Kailani Taylor-Cribb hasn鈥檛 taken a single class in what used to be her high school since the height of the coronavirus pandemic. She vanished from Cambridge, Massachusetts鈥� public school roll in 2021 and has been, from an administrative standpoint, unaccounted for since then.
She is among hundreds of thousands of students around the country who disappeared from public schools during the pandemic and didn鈥檛 resume their studies elsewhere.
An analysis by The Associated Press, Stanford University鈥檚 Big Local News project and found an estimated 240,000 students in 21 states whose absences could not be accounted for. These students didn鈥檛 move out of state, and they didn鈥檛 sign up for private school or home-school, according to publicly available data.
In short, they鈥檙e missing.
鈥淢issing鈥� students received crisis-level attention in 2020 after the pandemic closed schools nationwide. In the years since, they have become largely a budgeting problem. School leaders and some state officials worried aloud about the if these students didn鈥檛 come back. Each student represents money from the city, state and federal governments.
Gone is the urgency to find the students who left 鈥� those eligible for free public education but who are not receiving any schooling at all. Early in the pandemic, school . Most such efforts have ended.
鈥淓veryone is talking about declining enrollment, but no one is talking about who鈥檚 leaving the system and why,鈥� said Tom Sheppard, a New York City parent and representative on the city's Panel for Educational Policy.
鈥淣o one,鈥� he said, 鈥渋s forthcoming.鈥�
A PROBLEM NOT DISCUSSED
The missing kids identified by AP and Stanford represent far more than a number. The analysis highlights thousands of students who may have dropped out of school or missed out on the and school routines in kindergarten and first grade.
That鈥檚 thousands of students who matter to someone. Thousands of students who need help re-entering school, work and everyday life.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 the stuff that no one wants to talk about,鈥� said Sonja Santelises, the chief executive officer of Baltimore's public schools, speaking about her fellow superintendents.
鈥淲e want to say it鈥檚 outside stuff鈥� that鈥檚 keeping kids from returning to school, she said, such as caring for younger siblings or the need to work. But she worries teens sometimes lack caring adults at school who can discuss their concerns about life.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 really scary,鈥� Santelises said.
Discussion of children's recovery from the pandemic has focused largely on . But Dee says the data suggests a need to understand more about children who aren鈥檛 in school and how that will affect their development.
鈥淭his is leading evidence that tells us we need to be looking more carefully at the kids who are no longer in public schools,鈥� he said.
Over months of reporting, the AP learned of students and families avoiding school for a range of reasons. Some are still afraid of COVID-19, are homeless or have left the country. Some students couldn鈥檛 study online and found jobs instead. Some slid into depression.
During the , some students fell so far behind developmentally and academically that they or learn at school. Many of these students, while largely absent from class, are still officially on school rosters. That makes it harder to truly count the number of missing students. The real tally of young people not receiving an education is likely far greater than the 240,000 figure calculated by the AP and Stanford.
In some cases, this wasn鈥檛 sudden. Many students were struggling well before the pandemic descended.
Kailani, for one, had begun to feel alienated at her school. In ninth grade, a few months before the pandemic hit, she was unhappy at home and had been moved to a different math class because of poor grades.
Kailani has ADHD and says the white teaching assistant assigned to help her focus in her new class targeted her because she was Black, blaming Kailani when classmates acted up. She also didn鈥檛 allow Kailani to use her headphones while working independently in class, something Kailani says was permitted in her special education plan to help her focus.
After that, Kailani stopped attending math. Instead, she cruised the hallways or read in the library.
Ultimately, the pandemic and at-home education relieved the anxiety Kailani felt from being in the school building. Kailani preferred online school because she could turn off her camera and engage as she chose. Her grades improved.
When the school reopened, she never returned.
A Cambridge schools spokesperson looked into Kailani鈥檚 complaints. 鈥淪everal individuals demonstrated great concern and compassion towards her and the challenges she was facing outside of school,鈥� Sujata Wycoff said. She said the district has a 鈥渞eputation of being deeply dedicated to the education and well-being of our students.鈥�
LOSING THE PHYSICAL CONNECTION
To assess just how many students have gone missing, AP and Big Local News canvassed every state in the nation to find the most recently available data on both public and non-public schools, as well as census estimates for the school-age population.
Overall, public school enrollment fell by 710,000 students between the 2019-20 and 2021-22 school years in the 21 states plus Washington, D.C., that provided the necessary data.
Those states saw private-school enrollment grow by over 100,000 students. , surging by more than 180,000.
But the data showed 240,000 students who were neither in private school nor registered for home-school. Their absences could not be explained by population loss, either 鈥� such as falling birth rates or families who moved out of state.
States where kindergarten is optional were more likely to have larger numbers of unaccounted-for students, suggesting the missing also include many young learners kept home instead of starting school.
California alone showed over 150,000 missing students in the data, and New York had nearly 60,000. Census estimates are imperfect. So AP and Stanford ran a similar analysis for pre-pandemic years in those two states. It found almost no missing students at all, confirming something out of the ordinary occurred during the pandemic.
The true number of missing students is likely much higher. The analysis doesn鈥檛 include data from 29 states, including Texas and Illinois, or the unknown numbers of ghost students who are technically enrolled but rarely make it to class.
For some students, it was impossible to overcome with school and teachers during the pandemic's school closures.
Jos茅 Escobar, an immigrant from El Salvador, had only recently enrolled in the 10th grade in Boston Public Schools when the campus shut down in March 2020. His school-issued laptop didn鈥檛 work, and because of bureaucratic hurdles, the district . His father stopped paying their phone bills after losing his restaurant job. Without any working technology for months, he never logged into remote classes.
When instruction resumed online that fall, he decided to walk away and find work as a prep cook. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 learn that way,鈥� he said in Spanish. At 21, he鈥檚 still eligible for school in Boston, but says he鈥檚 too old for high school and needs to work to help his family.
Another Boston student became severely depressed during online learning and was hospitalized for months. Back home, he refuses to attend school or leave his room despite visits from at least one teacher. When his mother asked him about speaking to a reporter, he cursed her out.
These are all students who have formally left school and have likely been erased from enrollment databases. Many others who are enrolled are not receiving an education.
In Los Angeles last year, nearly half of students were chronically absent, meaning they missed more than 10% of the school year. For students with disabilities, the numbers are even higher: According to district data, 55% missed at least 18 school days. It鈥檚 not clear how many students were absent more than that. The city鈥檚 Unified School District did not respond to requests for this data.
WHEN SCHOOLS DON鈥橳 COME THROUGH
Los Angeles officials have spoken openly about attempts to find unschooled students and help remove obstacles that are preventing them from coming to school. Laundry services have been offered, as has help with housing. But for some students and their parents, the problem sits within a school system they say has routinely failed their children.
鈥淧arents are bereft,鈥� said Allison Hertog, who represents around three dozen families whose children missed significant learning when California鈥檚 physical classrooms during the early pandemic.
Ezekiel West, 10, is in fourth grade but . Before the pandemic shutdowns, he was shuffled from school to school when educators couldn鈥檛 address his impulsive behavior.
During online learning, his mother couldn鈥檛 get home internet and struggled with the WiFi hotspots provided by the school. She worked as a home health aide and couldn鈥檛 monitor Ezekiel online.
When he returned to school in fall 2021 as a third grader, he was frustrated that his classmates had made more progress as the years passed.
鈥淚 did not feel prepared,鈥� he said in a recent phone interview. 鈥淚 couldn鈥檛 really learn as fast as the other kids, and that kind of made me upset.鈥�
An administrative judge ruled Los Angeles鈥� schools had violated Ezekiel鈥檚 rights and ordered the district to give him a spot at a new school, with a special plan to ease him back into learning and trusting teachers. The school didn鈥檛 follow the plan, so his mother stopped sending him in October.
鈥淚 can鈥檛 trust them,鈥� Miesha Clarke said. Los Angeles school officials did not respond to requests for comment on Ezekiel鈥檚 case.
Last month, Ezekiel signed up for a public online school for California students. To enroll him, his mother agreed to give up his special education plan. His attorney, Hertog, worries the program won鈥檛 work for someone with Ezekiel鈥檚 needs and is looking for yet another option with more flexibility.
At least three of the students Hertog has represented, including Ezekiel, have disappeared from school for long periods since in-person instruction resumed. Their situations were avoidable, she said: 鈥淚t鈥檚 pretty disgraceful that the school systems allowed this to go on for so long.鈥�
When Kailani stopped logging into her virtual classes during the spring of her sophomore year, she received several emails from the school telling her she鈥檇 been truant. Between two to four weeks after she disappeared from Zoom school, her homeroom advisor and Spanish teacher each wrote to her, asking where she was. And the school鈥檚 dean of students called her great-grandmother, her legal guardian, to inform her about Kailani鈥檚 disappearance from school.
They didn鈥檛 communicate further, according to Kailani. She went to work at Chipotle, ringing up orders in Boston鈥檚 financial district.
In December, Kailani moved to North Carolina to make a new start. She teaches dance to elementary school kids now. Last month, she passed her high school equivalency exams. She wants to take choreography classes.
But she knows, looking back, that things could have been different. While she has no regrets about leaving high school, she says she might have changed her mind if someone at school had shown more interest and attention to her needs and support for her as a Black student.
鈥淎ll they had to do was take action,鈥� Kailani said. 鈥淭here were so many times they could have done something. And they did nothing.鈥�
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This article is based on by The Associated Press and Stanford University鈥檚 project. Data was compiled by Sharon Lurye of the AP, Thomas Dee of Stanford鈥檚 Graduate School of Education, and Justin Mayo of Big Local News.
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The Associated Press education team receives support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The AP is solely responsible for all content.