Native American students miss school at higher rates. It only got worse during the pandemic

SAN CARLOS, Ariz. (AP) — After missing 40 days of school last year, Tommy Betom, 10, is on track this year for much better attendance. The importance of showing up has been stressed repeatedly at school — and at home.

When he went to school last year, he often came home saying the teacher was picking on him and other kids were making fun of his clothes. But Tommy's grandmother Ethel Marie Betom, who became one of his caregivers after his parents split, said she told him to choose his friends carefully and to behave in class.

He needs to go to school for the sake of his future, she told him.

“I didn’t have everything,” said Betom, an enrolled member of the San Carlos Apache tribe. Tommy attends school on the tribe's reservation in southeastern Arizona. “You have everything. You have running water in the house, bathrooms and a running car.”

A teacher and a truancy officer also reached out to Tommy's family to address his attendance. He was one of many. Across the San Carlos Unified School District, 76% of students were chronically absent during the 2022-2023 school year, meaning they missed 10% or more of the school year.

This story is part of a collaboration on chronic absenteeism among Native American students between The Associated Press and ICT, a news outlet that covers Indigenous issues.

Years after COVID-19 disrupted American schools, nearly every state is still struggling with attendance. But attendance has been worse for Native American students — a disparity that existed before the pandemic and has since grown, according to data collected by The Associated Press.

Out of 34 states with data available for the 2022-2023 school year, half had absenteeism rates for Native American and Alaska Native students that were at least 9 percentage points higher than the state average.

Many schools serving Native students have been working to strengthen connections with families, who often struggle with higher rates of illness and poverty. Schools also must navigate distrust dating back to the U.S. government's campaign to break up Native American culture, language and identity by forcing children into abusive boarding schools.

History "may cause them to not see the investment in a public school education as a good use of their time,” said Dallas Pettigrew, director of Oklahoma University's Center for Tribal Social Work and a member of the Cherokee Nation.

The San Carlos school system recently introduced care centers that partner with hospitals, dentists and food banks to provide services to students at multiple schools. The work is guided by cultural success coaches — school employees who help families address challenges that keep students from coming to school.

Nearly 100% of students in the district are Native and more than half of families have incomes below the federal poverty level. Many students come from homes that deal with alcoholism and drug abuse, Superintendent Deborah Dennison said.

Students miss school for reasons ranging from anxiety to unstable living conditions, said Jason Jones, a cultural success coach at San Carlos High School and an enrolled member of the San Carlos Apache tribe. Acknowledging their fears, grief and trauma helps him connect with students, he said.

“You feel better, you do better,” Jones said. "That’s our job here in the care center is to help the students feel better.”

In the 2023-2024 school year, the chronic absenteeism rate in the district fell from 76% to 59% — an improvement Dennison attributes partly to efforts to address their communities' needs.

“All these connections with the community and the tribe are what’s making a difference for us and making the school a system that fits them rather than something that has been forced upon them, like it has been for over a century of education in Indian Country,” said Dennison, a member of the Navajo Nation.

In three states — Alaska, Nebraska, and South Dakota — the majority of Native American and Alaska Native students were chronically absent. In some states, it has continued to worsen, even while improving slightly for other students, as in Arizona, where chronic absenteeism for Native students rose from 22% in 2018-2019 to 45% in 2022-2023.

AP's analysis does not include data on schools managed by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Education, which are not run by traditional districts. Less than 10% of Native American students attend BIE schools.

At Algodones Elementary School, which serves a handful of Native American pueblos along New Mexico's Upper Rio Grande, about two-thirds of students are chronically absent.

The communities were hit hard by COVID-19, with devastating impacts on elders. Since schools reopened, students have been slow to return. Excused absences for sick days are still piling up — in some cases, Principal Rosangela Montoya suspects, students are stressed about falling behind academically.

Staff and tribal liaisons have been analyzing every absence and emphasizing connections with parents. By 10 a.m., telephone calls go out to the homes of absent students. Next steps include in-person meetings with those students’ parents.

“There’s illness. There’s trauma,” Montoya said. “A lot of our grandparents are the ones raising the children so that the parents can be working.”

About 95% of Algodones' students are Native American, and the school strives to affirm their identity. It doesn't open on four days set aside for Native American ceremonial gatherings, and students are excused for absences on other cultural days as designated by the nearby pueblos.

For Jennifer Tenorio, it makes a difference that the school offers classes in the family’s native language of Keres. She speaks Keres at home, but says that’s not always enough to instill fluency.

Tenorio said her two oldest children, now in their 20s, were discouraged from speaking Keres when enrolled in the federal Head Start educational program — a system that now promotes native language preservation — and they struggled academically.

“It was sad to see with my own eyes,” said Tenorio, a single parent and administrative assistant who has used the school's food bank. “In Algodones, I saw a big difference to where the teachers were really there for the students, and for all the kids, to help them learn.”

Over a lunch of strawberry milk and enchiladas on a recent school day, her 8-year-old son Cameron Tenorio said he likes math and wants to be a policeman.

“He’s inspired,” Tenorio said. “He tells me every day what he learns.”

In Arizona, Rice Intermediate School Principal Nicholas Ferro said better communication with families, including Tommy Betom's, has helped improve attendance. Since many parents are without working phones, he said, that often means home visits.

Lillian Curtis said she has been impressed by Rice Intermediate's student activities on family night. Her granddaughter, Brylee Lupe, 10, missed 10 days of school by mid-October last year but had missed just two days by the same time this year.

“The kids always want to go — they are anxious to go to school now. And Brylee is much more excited,” said Curtis, who takes care of her grandchildren.

Curtis said she tells Brylee that skipping school is not an option.

“I just told her that you need to be in school, because who is going to be supporting you?” Curtis said. “You've got to do it on your own. You got to make something of yourself.”

The district has made gains because it is changing the perception of school and what it can offer, said Dennison, the superintendent. Its efforts have helped not just with attendance but also morale, especially at the high school, she said.

“Education was a weapon for the U.S. government back in the past,” she said. “We work to decolonize our school system.”

Lee reported from Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Lurye reported from New Orleans. Alia Wong of The Associated Press and Felix Clary of ICT contributed to this report.

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Rice Intermediate School student Gabriella Logan, 10, talks about her school experience Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024, in San Carlos, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Nicholas Ferro, principal of Rice Intermediate School, talks about the student experience Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024, in San Carlos, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Rice Intermediate School Principal Nicholas Ferro walks to a classroom at Rice Intermediate School Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024, in San Carlos, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Jason Jones, cultural success coach and care center manager, talks about the care center at San Carlos High School Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024, in San Carlos, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Paula Wilson, cultural success coach at Rice Primary School talks about the Care Center Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024, in San Carlos, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Velma Kitcheyan, a third grade teacher at Rice Intermediate School, instructs her students Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024, in San Carlos, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Rice Intermediate School Principal Nicholas Ferro walks to the main building on campus Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024, in San Carlos, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Principal Nicholas Ferro, left, talks with teacher Chirstine Monroid in her classroom at Rice Intermediate School Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024, in San Carlos, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Third grade teachers Ciara Key, left, and Arden Serrato handing out tests, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, at Algodones Elementary School in Algodones, N.M. (AP Photo/Roberto E. Rosales)

Second grade teacher Lori Spina taking a photo of her class for her newsletter Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, at Algodones Elementary School in Algodones, N.M. (AP Photo/Roberto E. Rosales)

An American flag and New Mexico flag fly at Algodones Elementary School, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, at Algodones Elementary School in Algodones, N.M. (AP Photo/Roberto E. Rosales)

Social worker Mary Schmauss, left, and attendance clerk Katrice Grant, discussing truancy cases they need to tackle, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, at Algodones Elementary School in Algodones, N.M. (AP Photo/Roberto E. Rosales)

Social worker Mary Schmauss, rear right, greets students as they arrive for school, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, at Algodones Elementary School in Algodones, N.M. (AP Photo/Roberto E. Rosales)

Social worker Mary Schmauss, right, greets students as they arrive for school, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, at Algodones Elementary School in Algodones, N.M. (AP Photo/Roberto E. Rosales)

Principal Rosangela Montoya walks Jahim Chavez, 7, back into the school from the playground, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, at Algodones Elementary School in Algodones, N.M. (AP Photo/Roberto E. Rosales)

Principal Rosangela Montoya waves goodbye to parents as students arrive at school, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, at Algodones Elementary School in Algodones, N.M. (AP Photo/Roberto E. Rosales)

Attendance Clerk Katrice Grant looks to help a student get out a a car as he is dropped off at school, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, at Algodones Elementary School in Algodones, N.M. (AP Photo/Roberto E. Rosales)

Attendance Clerk Katrice Grant follows siblings Melanie Pacheco, 8, right and Marilynn Pacheco, 5, as they arrive for school, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, at Algodones Elementary School in Algodones, N.M. (AP Photo/Roberto E. Rosales)

Attendance Clerk Katrice Grant speaks to siblings Melanie Pacheco, 8, left, and Marilynn Pacheco, 5, in the hallway before heading to their classrooms, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, at Algodones Elementary School in Algodones, N.M. (AP Photo/Roberto E. Rosales)

GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador (AP) — A probe into the military's role in the disappearance of four children in Ecuador this month was delayed for almost two weeks, even though police had access to surveillance videos showing soldiers taking two of the children, The Associated Press has learned.

The case of the children, aged 11 to 15, who went missing on Dec. 8 in the coastal city of Guayaquil after playing a soccer, has struck a nerve in Ecuador, with rights groups and the public demanding information about their whereabouts and asking that the case be investigated as a forced disappearance.

The surveillance video was handed in to authorities a day after the children went missing, two persons familiar with the investigation told the AP. But an investigation of the military’s role in the disappearance was not announced until 15 days later.

The two spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the case. The probe only started after the children's families went on local news channels and social media to demand more action from authorities.

The security footage, showing men in military uniform grabbing two boys and driving off with them in a pickup truck, became public earlier this week. The two children in the video are believed to be among the four who disappeared that night.

On Tuesday, four badly charred bodies were found near an air force base in the city of Taura, officials said, and they were looking into whether the bodies could be of the missing children.

Later that day, 16 soldiers from the base were arrested. Investigators said it could take up to a month to confirm if the bodies are of the children because their fingerprints had been burnt off and forensic workers will have to extract DNA fragments from bones or teeth for identification purposes.

The soldiers are due to appear at a hearing next Tuesday, where they are expected to be charged with the forced disappearance of the children, according to the Attorney General’s Office.

Ecuador’s Defense Minister, Gian Carlo Lofffredo said Thursday that the 16 soldiers will also be questioned by a military tribunal and that the patrol linked to the disappeared children had not been authorized by officers at the Taura base.

Ecuador’s police deferred questions from the AP about the videos to the national prosecutor’s office, which declined to respond. The Ministry of Defense and the Ecuadorean army also did not respond to questions about the footage.

Violence in Ecuador intensified in January after a gang leader escaped from prison amid deadly riots. Two days later, members of another drug gang attacked a television channel and interrupted a live broadcast to make demands to the government.

President Daniel Noboa's government has leaned on the military to curb gang violence . However, the military has now been implicated in several abuses, including the disappearance of two children in August in the central province of Los Rios, and the case of a 19-year-old who was fatally shot by the military at a checkpoint on a road in Guayaquil.

Noboa has promised to reduce violence as he prepares to run for reelection in February.

But many Ecuadorians have expressed their discontent as the homicide rate has tripled in the South American country since 2021, and extortion by drug gangs has forced thousands of people to migrate to the United States.

People protest outside the prosecutor's office against the disappearance of four children who were last seen on Dec. 8 running away from a military convoy in Guayaquil, Monday, Dec. 23, 2024. The sign reads in Spanish "Where are our children? The four from Guayaquil, Ecuador." (AP Photo/Cesar Munoz)

People protest outside the prosecutor's office against the disappearance of four children who were last seen on Dec. 8 running away from a military convoy in Guayaquil, Monday, Dec. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Cesar Munoz)

A mural of a child and the Spanish message "Where are they?" cover a wall in protest of the disappearance of four children who were last seen on Dec. 8 running away from a military convoy in Guayaquil, Monday, Dec. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Cesar Munoz)