By — Ali Rogin Ali Rogin By — Kaisha Young Kaisha Young Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/why-millions-of-students-are-chronically-absent-from-schools-in-the-u-s Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Audio At the height of the pandemic, school closures disrupted many students’ lives. In 2022, nearly 16 million students across the U.S. were chronically absent, double the pre-pandemic truancy rate, according to a new Stanford University analysis. To learn more, Ali Rogin speaks with Hedy Chang, founder and executive director of Attendance Works, an organization helping schools face this challenge. Listen to this Segment Watch Watch the Full Episode PBS NewsHour from Sep 10, 2023 By — Ali Rogin Ali Rogin Ali Rogin is a correspondent for the PBS News Hour and PBS News Weekend, reporting on a number of topics including foreign affairs, health care and arts and culture. She received a Peabody Award in 2021 for her work on News Hour’s series on the COVID-19 pandemic’s effect worldwide. Rogin is also the recipient of two Edward R. Murrow Awards from the Radio Television Digital News Association and has been a part of several teams nominated for an Emmy, including for her work covering the fall of ISIS in 2020, the Las Vegas mass shooting in 2017, the inauguration of President Barack Obama in 2014, and the 2010 midterm elections. By — Kaisha Young Kaisha Young Kaisha Young is a general assignment producer at PBS News Weekend.