absentee rates for elementary and middle school students in the first month of the school year.Superintendent Zoë Watson said the Anglophone School District South (ASDS) examined numbers for students in kindergarten through Grade 8 and found a 132 per cent increase in days missed by students due to “illness,” when compared with numbers from September 2019.Watson said the district has been working to prevent an outbreak of COVID-19 within the school system, including asking students to stay home if they’re exhibiting any two of a number of symptoms identified by New Brunswick public health.So, she said the numbers did not surprise her.“Because we have, across the province, asked parents, family members each morning before their child goes to.