SAN ANTONIO — School has been different over the past year because of the pandemic. Whether parents chose to send their children to class in person, or do virtual classes, they still had to attend school in some way. Sometimes, that’s just not happening.

Christine Martinez is one of the people that makes home visits, knocking on doors to see where those kids are. She doesn’t even need to use a map because a lot of the homes are return visits.

“This is a brand new title. It’s a brand new department this year,” said Martinez.

Her title is student attendance liaison. She’s responsible for tracking down students who haven’t been attending virtual classes.

“In fact, we just pulled up to the house right now. There’s a child outside, probably the one we’re looking for,” said Martinez.

Martinez didn’t know what she would encounter when she walked up to the door. That’s why she always has a co-worker with her. One parent said her children’s laptops stopped working and she hasn’t had time to go to the school to trade them out.

“A lot of the time, parents are fearful that they’re in trouble, and often times it results in resources and their devices not working,” said Martinez.

She’s worked for Northside ISD for 17 years, and has done these type of visits for years, but the role has changed.

“We used to handle truancy. Now versus punitive, we want to help families. We want to be able to get resources to the families. If a student is missing 80 days, 40 days, 100 days, we want to know why,” said Martinez.

Martinez said some parents have lost their jobs and sometimes homes. She just wants to help get their kids back on track.

47 percent of the more than 100,000 students in this district opted for virtual learning.

“Some parents are just flat out refusing to send their kids to school. They might have a medical condition such as asthma, or other conditions. They don’t want to expose their children to COVID, so they don’t want to send them to school, but they’re not logging in either. They’re not engaging. That’s when we have to step in,” said Martinez.

During this visit, Martinez searches for students from twelve of NISD’s different schools. Half of the people answer the door.

“There’s so many students missing school, that… how should I say this? It’s ongoing. It’s daily. It’s pretty much daily visits,” said Martinez.

In all, Northside ISD is made of 120 schools. Martinez’s work is never done. She makes her way back to school to follow up with these home visits and plan for which homes she’ll go to tomorrow.

“They’re our future. We need to support them now, because eventually they’re going to grow up and support us. I think caring for them is crucial,” said Martinez.

She said helping the future generations is what she’s passionate about.