More than 40,000 Fulton County Schools students were missing from class Monday.

About 8,000 more students were missing from DeKalb County schools than were reported absent the previous Monday.

Some schoolhouses across the Atlanta Public Schools system reported larger than normal absences.

The students likely didn't appear in classrooms Monday so they could watch the sun disappear behind the moon in the first total solar eclipse in the country in more than 25 years.

Numbers were not made available by officials from Gwinnett, Clayton and Cobb county schools.

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Kiley King, an 11th grader who attended Parklane Elementary School in East Point reacts to the Fulton County Board of Education’s vote to close the elementary school on Thursday, Feb 20, 2025. Parents, teachers, students and community members filled the public comment time asking to keep Parklane and Spalding Drive elementary schools open. (Jenni Girtman for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

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State Rep. Matt Reeves, R-Duluth, introduces himself while attending an AAPI mental health event at Norcross High School on Sunday, Aug. 11, 2024. (Ben Gray for the AJC)

Credit: Ben Gray