Finding school too overwhelming, 17-year-old Lily Boucher Rodriguez stopped going altogether after almost two years of intermittent attendance.
“I was skipping [classes] in the bathroom because I was really anxious about everything and about people,” she says.
“School in general is a lot when you’re different. It’s hard because you get bullied a lot.”
Boucher Rodriguez says she found a calm and non-judgmental environment where she can focus on her studies at L’Ancre des Jeunes, a community organization that helps young people re-engage with learning through personalized support.
“Everyone has their path, it’s very important to just finish yours,” said Rodriguez.
Besides homework support in the afternoons, the organization, located in Montreal’s Verdun borough, offers programs for teens and young adults to help them get back on track after they’ve dropped out of school.
Public school district data obtained by CBC News shows the rate of school absenteeism has grown across the country in elementary and secondary schools over the last few years. And Quebec is no different.
‘They will eventually get demotivated,’ says co-ordinator
Some of the kids who use the organizations’ services have missed months, even years of school, says program co-ordinator Florence Fontaine.
She says kids can be referred to the organization by parents, social workers or by youth protection if they miss large amounts of school time. The participants who spoke with CBC News were not referred by youth protection.
Kids might miss school for mental health reasons, due to bullying or trouble at home, says Fontaine. She says some kids also end up participating in their programs after years of academic difficulties.
“The system is not equipped to adapt to their learning process. So, they will eventually get demotivated to go to school because it’s too hard for them. They will just try to go less and less,” Fontaine said.
School absenteeism on the rise
In Montreal, student attendance has plummeted.
Data from the Centre de services scolaire de Montréal (CSSDM) — the province’s largest school service centre — show that unexcused absences have gone up by 85 per cent in elementary schools between the 2018-2019 and 2024-2025 academic school years. An unexcused absence means there is no communication from the parent or guardian.
Public school district data obtained by CBC News shows the rate of school absenteeism has grown across the country in elementary and secondary schools over the last few years. And Quebec is no different. Experts say social and economic factors could be at play.
Meanwhile, there’s been a two per cent decrease in the number of students.
Unexcused absences have more than doubled, at a 108 per cent increase, in high schools for the same period, while there’s only been an 18 per cent increase in the number of students.
Excused absences — such as illness for which the reason was communicated to the school by a parent — have gone up by 40 per cent in primary schools and by 64 per cent in secondary schools.
More than 30 per cent of CSSDM high school students and more than 10 per cent of elementary students were “chronically absent” in the last school year, in that they missed more than 10 per cent of the school year.
At the Centre de Services Scolaire de la Capitale (CSSC), in Quebec City, the total number of absences has grown by 446 per cent in elementary schools, compared with a 15 per cent increase of the number of students between 2018-2019 and 2024-2025.
Absences also jumped by 107 per cent in high schools, compared with a 38 per cent increase in the number of students.
At the Lester B. Pearson School Board in Montreal, the number of overall absences in primary and secondary schools grew by 26 per cent between 2018-2019 and 2024-2025, compared to an almost five per cent decrease in the number of students.
The English Montreal School Board says it doesn’t compile or centralize the number of absences at the board level, as requested by CBC News.
Cost of living putting pressure on families
Rachelle Doucet works as a guidance counselor at the LaSalle Community Comprehensive High School in Montreal. She says she has seen students increasingly miss school for a variety of reasons since the pandemic, especially due to anxiety.
“Technology for sure has a big part to play,” she said.
She also believes societal challenges affecting families as a whole end up having an impact on kids’ education.
“Parents are very tired. They’re at work all day. They don’t really want to be, you know, hounding their kid to get to school. If the kid wants to stay home, sometimes it’s easier to let them stay home,” she said.
Doucet says the cost of living has some families even relying on teens to help pay expenses.
On top of that, she says some of her students who have jobs are pressured by employers to work longer hours, which can lead to missing school.
“Students are starting earlier to get jobs,” she said.
“I think they’re working a lot to make up for the labour shortages, right? We see it everywhere in the retail industry, in the restaurant industry. Employers are desperate for workers and are relying more and more on our youngest workers who are 14 to 17 years old.”
‘They really let them sink or swim,’ says professor
Steven Shaw, a professor of educational and counselling psychology at McGill University, says a lack of resources in the education system can also lead to absenteeism.
He says it’s important for kids to feel safe at school, but there aren’t enough people who can help create safe environments — like school nurses, counselors and psychologists.
“I train school psychologists … and more than half of our students, when they graduate, go directly into private practice. They don’t go into schools. They would like to, but the public sector income is so poor,” he says.
Shaw says the system is especially letting down kids who need more support, including kids with disabilities.
65% graduation rate barely improved in 6 years, report
Information obtained from Quebec’s Education Ministry by Quebec’s Liberal Party and shared with CBC shows that thousands of students with different types of disabilities across the province are experiencing what’s called a “break in services” due to a lack of resources. That means they are kept home if schools can’t provide the services they need.
“Right now, without the resources, the teachers are so burdened, the children simply do not have any support that they need and they really let them sink or swim,” Shaw says.
In an email to CBC News, Quebec’s Education Ministry says it’s worrisome to know some students face complex situations and difficulty with their schooling. It says it has strengthened the education system over the last few years, and that for example, an additional 4,000 support staff members were hired in elementary schools.
A new report from the non-profit Institut du Québec (IDQ) suggests that provincial annual expenses per student have grown by 43 per cent since 2018. However, the report points out there isn’t enough data to properly evaluate if the investments are efficient.
It also shows the number of teachers and other educational professionals has increased. But IDQ was able to determine that in 2020 more than a quarter of teachers working in the province weren’t legally qualified.
It also says the number of students obtaining a high school diploma in the public sector remained almost the same in 2024 compared to 2018, with only a 65 per cent graduation rate.
A community effort
Shaw likes that community organizations are getting involved.
“What it really means is that education is not just the responsibility of school teachers, it’s families, it’s community, it’s businesses, it’s government,” he says.
Sixteen-year-old Sarah Lavoie, who regularly attends programming at L’Ancre des Jeunes, wants to carry on the legacy.
She says she stopped going to school because she felt overwhelmed. She was scared to raise her hand in class.
Now, Lavoie says she’s building up her confidence to go back and become an intervention worker like those she met at the community organization.
“I want to help people,” she says. “I’d love to take care of students, and listen. It’s really nice to be listened to.”
