As part of the new accountability system, the State Board of Education adopted on September 2016, the chronic absenteeism as a performance indicator to track absenteeism and truancy rates. This data will be used to meet the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) which requires states to report chronic absenteeism data.

Chronic absenteeism is reported for the first time in 2018 with status, change and a performance level (5X5 grid). Absenteeism is defined as an absence rate greater than 10%. This rate includes only students in grades K-8. students were determined to be chronically absent if they were enrolled for at least 31 days or more at the selected reporting level during the academic year and they were absent for 10 percent or more of the instructional days they were expected to attend. Schools and student groups in grades K-8 with 30 or more students who meet the eligible enrollment requirements in both the current and prior year will receive a performance level.

Status and Change

Status and Change will not be reported in the 2018 Dashboard.

Five-by-Five

The five-by-five grid combines status and change to determine an overall performance level for each indicator, with equal weight applied to both status and change. To learn more about the five-by-five grids, visit the CDE’s California School Dashboard Five-by-Five Colored Tables page.

How It’s Calculated

To determine chronic absenteeism rates, the following information is reported to the CDE:

1. The number of days a student could have attended
2. The number of days a student attended
   • Regular classroom
   • In-house suspension
3. The number of days a student was absent
   
   • Excused
   • Unexcused
   • Out-of-school Suspension

Chronically absent rates for schools and students are those greater than 10%. The CDE absenteeism rates will fall in the following four categories:

• Satisfactory Attendance: students with absence rates of <5%
• At-Risk Attendance: > 5% and < 10%
• Moderate Chronic Absent students: students with absence rates > 10% and < 20%
• Severe Chronic Absent: students with absence rates > 20%.

Chronic Absenteeism indicator will be based on K-8 unduplicated enrollment data using the following formula:

The number of students who are chronically absent
divided by
unduplicated count of the number of students enrolled during the academic year
equals
Chronic absenteeism rate

Learn More About This Indicator

Additional information is available from the CDE at the California Dashboard and System of Support webpage.

Contact

For questions about chronic absenteeism and other chronic absenteeism-related policies, contact:

• Division of Student Health and Human Services at (213) 241-3840
• Pupil Services Department at (213) 241-3844

For questions about the Chronic Absenteeism data submitted to the California Department of Education, contact State Reporting Services Branch at (213) 241-2450.

Last updated 2018-12-19