Auditor General has troubling numbers on school attendance at Northland School Division

A report from Alberta’s Auditor General has some troubling numbers when it comes to school attendance in the Northland School Division.

Merwan Saher findings show that 1 in 3 kids are chronically absent from school and points the finger at the Ministry of Education for not failing to take action.

The Northland School Division is made up of 24 schools in northern Alberta and has 2,700 students… 95 percent are Aboriginal.

The district costs over 60 million dollars to run annually.
 
Superintendent Donna Barrett says they are aware of the problem and have already been trying to come up with ways to get kids back in school the majority of the time.
 
Barrett says in order for students to do well academically, they need to be in school 90 percent of the time. More than 40 percent of the students are attaining this.
 
She adds there are a number of reasons why kids avoid school, everything from being bullied to having to babysit a younger sibling at home and Barret says the schools need to work with families to solve the issues that are keeping them away.
 
The Northland School Division has 24 schools that serve 27 hundred students in northern Alberta with Peace River being the center.