SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Sioux Falls School District officials say hundreds students didn’t participate in online learning last spring after the coronavirus pandemic drove the district to close classrooms. Keloland.com reports 700 kids, or 3% of the district’s student body, never connected with their teachers during the last quarter of the year.

Assistant Superintendent Teresa Boysen said the district tried to reach out to the students but never connected with them. She says phone numbers and emails changed and some students moved to different towns so they’d have someone to take care of them while parents kept working.