How many students missed school during the pandemic? Alabama doesn’t know. Updated 6:55 AM; Today 6:55 AM This Perry County school bus, wired as a mobile internet hotspot, is parked in Newbern, Ala., every weekday to get students connected to the internet to complete their schoolwork. Facebook Share . More and more students in Alabama are back in classrooms, but questions of how to keep track of students who miss in-person or remote school during the pandemic remain. Alabama does not have a statewide estimate of absenteeism or how many students have silently left classrooms at some point during the school year during the pandemic. An estimate that 9,800 fewer students enrolled in public school this fall does not capture the scale of a potential dropout, truancy or absentee problem — or lack thereof.