Topline:
California student attendance is rebounding from the COVID-19 pandemic years. That’s a promising sign for academic recovery, based on state data released Friday.
Why it matters: As students started returning to school in person during the 2021-22 school year, about 30% of them missed a month of class or more. The most recent data show chronic absenteeism is now down to 24% statewide. In the last full school year before the pandemic, it was 12%. Black, unhoused and American Indian students continue to miss a lot more days than their peers.
Where’s the data from? The information released Friday comes from the California School Dashboard, a smorgasbord of color-coded data including test scores, graduation, and suspension rates at the state, district, and school level.
What about Los Angeles Unified?: Los Angeles Unified has seen more consistent attendance, though rates of chronic absence are still higher than the state average at 31%. Since spring 2022, district staff have visited more than 23,000 homes as part of an effort to connect chronically absent families with resources and academic support.
”We recognize there is still work to do and will continue focusing our efforts on improving attendance,” an LAUSD spokesperson said in a statement.
What does this mean for my child? As we’ve reported before, there’s an educational and financial cost to chronic absenteeism. Educators say they can’t help students catch up if they’re not in the classroom and schools with lower average attendance can lose state funding. Here’s where you can look up how your district is doing.
Absence vs. absenteeism: If your child is tardy, leaves early, or misses a whole day of school, it’s important to let the district know why. Here’s more information.
Do these numbers mean things are getting “back to normal”? It’s not unimportant!