Metro Atlanta students play hookie from school to see solar eclipse

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.

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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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Credit: abbey.cutrer@ajc.com