Brampton school absence rates have improved this week

School absence rates in Brampton appear to have declined since last week.

Days after 13 schools in the city reported a major absence rate above 30 per cent, only one exceeded 20% on Wednesday.

Fallingdale Public School, which is in Bramalea, reported that 22.2 per cent of its staff and students were absent. Aylesbury Public School had the next-highest reported rate at 18.3.

The province recently ceased reporting COVID-19 cases in schools and began monitoring overall absence rates. The percentages that are posted at data.ontario.ca represent the combined percentage of students and staff who were reported as absent, but it is not known whether the cases are associated with COVID.

Eight other Brampton schools, all part of Peel District School Board, reported absence rates of at least 16.7 per cent, or 1 out of every 6 members of the school population. Fletcher’s Meadow Secondary School and Parkholme Secondary School were the only high schools in the last. Peel Alternative North ISR, along with Arnott Charlton, Burnt Elm, Clark Boulevard, Hickory Wood and Lorenville elementary schools, were also at 16.7 or higher.

Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Elementary School reported a 12.1 per cent absence rate, which was the highest among Brampton schools in the Dufferin-Peel Catholic Board.

The data is self-reported to the Ontario Ministry of Education and is current as of 2 p.m. the previous weekday. Typically, the data is updated around 10:30 a.m. the next day.

Ontario students have lost more days of in-person learning during the COVID-19 pandemic than their counterparts in every other jurisdiction in Canada and the United States.

Schools re-opened for in-person learning three weeks ago. At that time, Health Minister Christine Elliott said there is “very little evidence” that schools are leading to high levels of transmission of COVID-19.

Both the province and the federal government recently made commitments to improving ventilation in schools, but those are much smaller than a ballooning backlog for general school repairs.

In April, the feds announced plans to invest $525.2 million toward education-related projects as part of the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program. The province also committed more than $131.3 million toward projects in the education system, which works out to just more than $27,000 per school.

In the fall of 2019, the general schools repairs backlog was estimated to be $16.3 billion. That figure also predates the pandemic and a recent spike in inflation to 30-year highs nationwide.

The school repair backlog was pegged at $15.9 billion when the PCs were elected in 2018, ending 15 years of Liberal governments.