TAMPA, Fla. — 7,000.
That's about how many students didn't return for the start of public school this year in Hillsborough County.
It was an unprecedented drop in enrollment – one that came as Florida continued to navigate the coronavirus pandemic.
CBS News' 60 Minutes sat down with Laura Tucker, one of Hillsborough County Public Schools' 235 social workers. This year, they're not just checking on kids; many are actively working to find them.
"Every student attended some school last year. All 7,000 of them," Tucker told 60 Minutes last month. "So we start there. You know, what about their emergency contacts? You know, maybe grandma or grandpa is on the emergency card and grandma and grandpa can tell you where they are."
It's detective work. And, it sometimes involves reinforcements.
60 Minutes was there a few weeks ago as Tucker went with sheriff's deputies to see if families were staying in an encampment in the woods. This fall, she discovered a seventh-grade boy living with his mother among the trees.
Florida's tourism industry was battered by the pandemic, leaving many parents out of work. Tucker has found families living in motels because they couldn't find space at shelters.
A federal moratorium on evictions for people who would become homeless is set to expire at the end of 2020.
"I'll try anything to find students who need to be in school. But this is uncharted ground," Tucker told 60 Minutes. "We've never had to look this hard – for kids, in my career."
She's been working out of her SUV for months, going down a list of student names – trying to make sure they're OK and get them an education. To date, Tucker and her co-workers have managed to locate most of the children. About 700 are still unaccounted for – just days before Thanksgiving.
So, the search continues.
State law requires parents to enroll their children in school by age 6 or alert the district that they'll be pursuing home-schooling. This year, due to the coronavirus pandemic, students enrolled in Hillsborough County's public school system had the choice between in-person instruction and the district's remote learning options. Tucker is looking for students who aren't doing either. In her words, they're simply "missing."
"I think a portion of them – moved away. I think a portion of them are doing their own thing. They're homeschooling and they just haven't notified our homeschool office that that's what they've decided to do. And then some of them just aren't doing school. And you can get away with it right now," Tucker told 60 Minutes. "And that's really scary."
With all eyes on the pandemic itself amid spikes in new coronavirus cases nationwide, nobody is tracking how many U.S. children are not in school. So, 60 Minutes tried to capture a snapshot of the situation by compiling enrollment data from 78 of the nation's largest school districts.
When school started, 60 Minutes found those districts reported a combined 240,000 students were simply unaccounted for.
For example: In Loudoun County, Virginia, 60 Minutes found district officials searching for 400 students this fall. At the time, they were looking inside laundromats and thrift stores.
Nationally, the largest enrollment drops were among pre-K and kindergarten students.
RELATED: 7,000 Hillsborough County students were unaccounted for during the COVD-19 pandemic. Where are they?
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