California education officials on Tuesday released school-level data that shows that last year more than 1 in 10 students were chronically absent, defined as missing at least 10 percent of school days for any reason.
The data, which the state released for the first time, reveals that 1 in 4 foster children was chronically absent from California schools last year, as were about 1 in 5 homeless, Native American and African-American students.
By tracking and releasing the data, California joins nearly all states nationwide in dramatically shifting its approach to school absence away from punishing truancy, or unexcused absences, toward identifying the reasons for all absences and offering support. California in 2013, as part of the newly enacted Local Control Funding Formula, required school districts to track and address chronic absenteeism in their accountability plans. But the state only began collecting the data last year. It will eventually be added to the department’s new accountability dashboard so the public — including parents, teachers and school board members — can track progress.
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