NEW ROADS - A new study shows truancy in Louisiana schools has spiked since the pandemic, and one parish is at the top of the list.

A new analysis from the Public Affairs Research Council says truancy has jumped to about 40 percent statewide. The state defines it as five or more unexcused absences in a semester.

Right now, Pointe Coupee Parish leads the state, with two out of every three students truant.

“That’s very disheartening, because we as educators know that we need children in classrooms with the teachers, because so much instruction takes place that they miss when they're not present,” Superintendent Kim Canezaro said.

Canezaro says the numbers are higher than before Covid, but the district is taking action. Pointe Coupee Schools partners with the sheriff’s office, where one deputy is dedicated full-time to truancy.

“His sole purpose is to help us fight truancy. He does home visits, those kinds of things,” Canezaro said.

State education officials are also getting involved, requiring schools to track attendance closely and intervene after just a few missed days.

“Support from the LDOE is an attendance specialist who's working directly with our district,” Canezaro explained. “Each school has to have an attendance review team, and we have to make a watch list for the students who are already at the three day mark of absences.”

Canezaro says she requires principals to send her attendance numbers every day, so no one can ignore the issue.

“So what I've done as a superintendent, I'm making the administrators report to me every day with their daily attendance,” she said. “I need it to be something that they’re focusing on as administrators for their school.”

Sources told WBRZ that numbers may actually be worse, claiming Livonia High School wasn’t reporting absences last year.

Canezaro pushed back on that claim.

“That’s not true, because we have to report this to the state,” she said. “Our highest school with the highest truancy is Livonia High School. So it’s being reported.”

Still, Canezaro says schools can’t do it alone. Parents have to step in too.

“We need the parental support on the other end,” she said. “We need parents to value education, to say when my child’s not at school, they’re missing some valuable instructional time.”