ATLANTA – More students have been skipping school since the COVID-19 pandemic, and Georgia lawmakers are looking into the problem.

A leading state Senate Republican announced Tuesday that he is forming a committee on the issue. Sen. John F. Kennedy, R-Macon, will also chair the new Study Committee on Combating Chronic Absenteeism in Schools.

Kennedy, the Senate’s president pro tempore, credited the chamber’s leader, Republican Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, with prioritizing the issue.

“Thanks to his support, this new study committee will help us dig deeper into the root causes of absenteeism,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy was the chief co-sponsor of Senate Bill 123, which Gov. Brian Kemp signed last month. It amends Georgia’s compulsory attendance law for students ages 6 through 15, with chronic absenteeism defined as missing 10% or more of the school year. That law already requires superior court judges to establish and oversee student attendance and school climate committees in each county.

When it takes effect in July, SB 123 will require attendance review teams in each school system where 10% or more of the students were chronically absent and in each school where at least 15% were chronically absent.

SB 123 also adds a requirement that the Georgia Department of Education publish biannual reports on compliance with the law and on attendance rates.

The education department already publishes attendance rates, and the percentage of students missing school has climbed sharply since before the pandemic, when 12% of students qualified as chronically absent.

The rate fell briefly to 8% in 2020, when Kemp ordered schools to close their doors.

But chronic absenteeism surged to 20.1% in 2021, when schools adapted to the pandemic, with some operating online while others returned in person.

The percentage of chronically absent students climbed to 23.9% in 2022 before settling to 21.3% last year.

That means more than 370,000 Georgia students missed at least 10% of the 2024 school year.

Rates varied by district though, from 43.0% chronically absent in Crisp County to 5.1% in Wilkinson County.