Not just students who are missing school days

Chalkbeat-  It’s not just students who are missing school more frequently these days. In recent years, teachers have also been more likely to be absent. In New York City, 19% of teachers missed more than 10 days of school last year, compared to just 13% the year before the pandemic. There’s evidence that teacher absence rates have risen in other parts of the country, too. Teachers say there’s a number of reasons for this uptick. The obvious one is illness, including the COVID-19, flu, and RSV “tripledemic” from last winter. Relatedly, many educators are careful to stay home if they come down with even minor symptoms of illness.Then there are issues related to burnout, stress, and mental health, which can drive teachers to miss work. “We were just extra beaten down last year,” explained one Brooklyn teacher.