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By Teena Monteleone

Chronic Absenteeism

Schools still dealing with lower attendance rates since COVID

Oct 24, 2025 | 4:00 PM

Research shows attending school at least 80 to 90 per cent of the time has the greatest impact on academic success, but local school divisions in Prince Albert have seen those numbers drop as low as 65 per cent in the last four years and they’ve been slow to rebound.

Director of Education for the Prince Albert Catholic School Division (PACSD), Lorel Trumier, said they’ve seen reduced attendance ever since the pandemic.

“Our overall attendance of students with at least 80 per cent attendance pre-COVID was 80 per cent. The drop in attendance was most notable in the 2021-2022 school year, with 68 per cent of students having 80 per cent attendance.”

However, Trumier said the school division did see a gradual return in attendance last year when 72 per cent of students attended 80 per cent of the time.

The public school division is experiencing the same phenomenon. Saskatchewan Rivers Public School Division (SRPSD) Superintendent of Schools Garette Tebay told paNOW, before the pandemic in 2019, 82 per cent of kids were attending class 80 per cent of the time, but that number dropped to 65 per cent in 2021. While they too have seen rates bounce back to about 72 per cent, they are still below the average prior to COVID.

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Tebey said in 2023, SRPSD gathered a group of administrators, teachers, school social workers, and school mentors to look at research based best practices and have been implementing a response to chronic absenteeism that has helped. They’re now working on student engagement as well as other targeted interventions to increase the rate even further.

Trumier said PACSD is developing a priority action plan that will be a multi-pronged approach to improving rates. It will include working with parents as partners who can offer some strategies and insights. The division is also piloting a curriculum outcomes process that ensures students are clear about what’s expected of them.

It’s not known exactly why attendance rates haven’t bounced back completely since the pandemic. That’s something the divisions are also trying to determine.

The chronic absenteeism isn’t just an issue in Prince Albert. In the North East School Division (NESD), which includes Melfort, the percentage of K-12 students attending school more than 80 per cent of the time has dropped from over 90 per cent before COVID to below 80 per cent in recent years.

NESD wrote in it’s school board meeting agenda, “More concerning is the decline in students attending 90 per cent or more, which has fallen from an average of 78 per cent before COVID to just 53.3 per cent from 2021-2025.”

According to the NESD, the significant drop is contributing to growing learning gaps and lower levels of student achievement across the division

When asked whether the lower rates are affecting students in Prince Albert, Trumier said historically, they know when children are not attending, they’re not successful and that student achievement and attendance are directly correlated. However, PACSD graduation rates continue to outperform the province in most categories.

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teena.monteleone@pattisonmedia.com