The documentary brings\u00a0together youth, educators, administrators, community members, parents and Indigenous leaders in Winnipeg to provide first-hand insight into the issue, said Dueck.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/high-school-stock-photo.jpg\")
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 \u2014 the percentage of students who miss at least 10 per cent of the school year, or two full days a month \u2014 had climbed significantly since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. (CBC)<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Though data on student absenteeism is hard to come by, a\u00a0CBC investigation last year revealed that in many school divisions\u00a0across the country, rates of chronic absence \u2014 the percentage of students who miss at least 10 per cent of the school year, or two full days a month\u00a0\u2014 had climbed\u00a0significantly since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
Data provided by the Winnipeg School Division for fall 2023<\/a>\u00a0indicated\u00a0the 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n Division disputes figure<\/p>\n However, the\u00a0superintendent of the Winnipeg School Division disputes some of the documentary’s claims.<\/p>\n Matt Henderson says\u00a0he doesn’t know where the 70 per cent absentee rate Dueck cites at one school comes from.<\/p>\n “He says that figure is from a reliable source \u2014 he has it that one school has an absenteeism rate of 70 per cent. I’m not sure what reliable source that is \u2014 they’re not in our schools,” said Henderson.<\/p>\n Henderson says last year, the Winnipeg School Division had a six per cent chronic absenteeism rate\u00a0\u2014 a\u00a0decrease\u00a0from the previous year.\u00a0<\/p>\n From kindergarten to Grade 8, the number of chronically absent students in the division\u00a0\u2014 the largest in the province, with approximately 32,000 students<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 dropped\u00a0from 2,779 in 2023-24 to 1,807 last year, according to the division. For grades 9 to 12,\u00a0it\u00a0decreased\u00a0from 1,131\u00a0to 1,049.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Winnipeg School Division does not publish data on specific schools, so its numbers are representative of all schools in their division.<\/p>\n “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<\/a> for the 2023-24 school year.<\/p>\n “We don’t do that anymore. We keep every student on our roster until we know what their story is.”<\/p>\n ‘Accounted for’<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/matt-henderson-winnipeg-school-division.JPG\")
Winnipeg School Division superintendent Matt Henderson says last year, the division had a six per cent chronic absenteeism rate \u2014 a decrease from the previous year. (Warren Kay\/CBC)<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/kent-dueck.jpeg\")
‘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)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1758889390_922_default.jpg\")
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