By Maggie Macintosh  Local Journalism Initiative Reporter MORE than 6,500 students, about four per cent of Manitoba’s K-12 population, went missing from school in September 2020, an alarming statistic revealed in a new report that warns COVID-19 has worsened engagement in education. “The pandemic has produced few benefits, but it has foregrounded student absence and mental health as significant impediments to school success,” states an excerpt from “Addressing Chronic Absenteeism in Manitoba: an Action Plan for Student Presence,” which was obtained by the Free Press. As part of its defunct attendance task force, the province hired a Vancouver-based firm to investigate chronic absenteeism, do a literature review on the issue and provide recommendations to address it. Directions Evidence and Policy Research Group, whose director of research is Charles Ungerleider, a

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