Absentee rates up at UGDSB, board points to respiratory illnesses

As respiratory illnesses spread through the community, the Upper Grand District School Board (UGDSB) is seeing an increase in student absences.

On Monday, the school board resumed its student absent tracking program to determine which schools were seeing higher increases in students out of the classroom.

The school board created a baseline absentee rate of 9 per cent, which was set by using each school’s September 2022 attendance to calculate a daily average.

“There would be very few schools that last week heading into this week that weren’t above their absences from September,” said Peter Sovran, UGDSB director of education.

Sovran said he believes respiratory illnesses are to blame for the increase in absences from schools.

The school board says the nine per cent average absentee rate recorded in September is considered normal.

On Monday, that number jumped to an average of 15 percent, meaning over 5,600 students were not in class.

“There’s certainly an increase in some of the respiratory illnesses in our community right now, not just COVID, but other illnesses,” said Sovran.

The board resumed posting daily absence rates on its website this week, a move it says is to provide transparency.

The data does not detail the reason why students were not in class.

Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph’s top doctor says absenteeism is a concerning trend.

“There are significant rates of school absenteeism, in fact, one of our boards reported they were seeing rates upward of 30 per cent,” said Dr. Nicola Mercer, medical officer of health for Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health. “When there are infectious diseases circulating it can affect a classroom, a school or school board quite drastically.”

Meanwhile, Guelph General Hospital said the number of children admitted to hospital for respiratory illness increased 600 per cent between April and September compared to the same time last year.

The number of emergency room visits also more than doubled.

“They are actually overcapacity, so they are holding children in emerg[ency], and they have more children admitted to hospital than they have beds for,” said Mercer.

Mercer is warning of a tough respiratory season ahead.

“We are seeing a much bigger number of influenza cases than we normally see this time of year, and it doesn’t look like it’s peaked in the province,” said Mercer.

To lessen the pressure put on hospitals and get kids back in class, she’s urging the public to mask up and keep up to date with immunizations, particularly for the flu and COVID-19.

“The number one thing we can all do is stay home when you’re sick, parent or child,” said Mercer.