FRANKFORT, Ky. — School districts that were heavily affected by this summer’s flood have struggled with attendance all year long. Now, those problems are being compounded by widespread illness.

“The highest our attendance has been since we started school this year was 88 percent, and that was only for two days,” Knott County Supt. Brent Hoover said in an online “superintendent’s huddle” with Education Commissioner Jason E. Glass on Tuesday. “We’ve been running 84 percent to 87 percent prior to sickness.”

Hoover said widespread illness pushed attendance figures down to 71 percent one day last week. He said that number has rebounded into the 80s this week, but he is considering closing schools if they fall into the 70s again.

Perry County Supt. Jonathan Jett is seeing similar problems with attendance, and he said NTI days are not really feasible, because students leave their laptops at school.

“I thought about trying to do NTI days and virtual … but getting those devices out to kids that are sick and the teachers not being there to know which student gets which device – that’s a challenge,” Jett said.

Glass said the Department of Education will work with the legislature to try to give more flexibility to districts that are struggling with high absentee rates.

“We’ll do what we can to advocate for more flexibility,” Glass said. “We need a statutory change for adjusted average daily attendance; it’s written in the state law.”