Education

during a typical school year in California, which averages about 180 instructional days.

American Indian or Alaska natives, homeless students and foster youth accounted for the highest average number of absences, 13.6, 14.3, and 15.3 days, respectively, with the highest percentages of unexcused absences and the lowest percentages of excused absences, according to the CDE data.

Those groups were followed by Black students, at 13.2 days, a category that had the highest percentage of unexcused absences and one of the lowest rates of excused absences but also one of the highest rates of outof- school suspensions, exceeded only by foster youth, at 2.6 and 4.3 percent, respectively.

Other groups with high averages of absences included students with disabilities, at 12.8 days; Pacific Islanders, at 12.3 days; socio- economically disadvantaged, at 10.9 days; Hispanic or Latino, at 10.3 days; English learners, 9.7 days; two or more races, at 9.3 days; white, at 9.1 days; migrant youth, 8.1 days; Filipino, at 7.3 days; and Asian, at 6.2 days.

The statewide average is 9.8 days.

The “absenteeism by reason” (AR) reports available on the CDE Dataquest website, at dq.cde.ca.gov, offer an extensive statewide view of absenteeism numbers that can help school districts develop “targeted attendance intervention strategies and support,” Thurmond wrote in a press release.

“Knowing why students are missing school is a crucial step in helping them stay in school,” he added. “These data add an extra layer of transparency to existing absenteeism information and a level of detail that school districts can utilize as they evaluate the effectiveness of existing attendance plans and compare absenteeism rates with other districts.

“It also creates an opportunity for school attendance staff throughout the state to collaborate and share best practices on methods to improve attendance, identifying specific actions that can help students and their families overcome attendance barriers.”

T he CDE developed the new absentee reports based on student absence data submitted and certified by the state’s 1,000 school districts and independently reporting charter schools through the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System, or CALPADS.

The origin of the data collection effort came from a recommendation proposed by Thurmond’s Improving Data Collection Workgroup, convened in the summer of 2019. One of its goals was to improve the availability of publicly reported data. Although absenteeism information is annually collected through CALPADS, these comparative measures of student attendance had not been reported until now, noted Thurmond.

The absentee report categories are: excused absences, unexcused ab - sences, absences due to out- of- school suspension, and incomplete independent study absences. Even if a student has excused absences, they are considered chronically absent if they miss 10 percent of the days they were expected to attend school.

The reports provide data separated by race and ethnicity, student groups, grade level, and by academic year, and also include filters that allow the data to be viewed along a variety of dimensions, including by school type (charter and noncharter schools), for alternative and traditional schools, for chronically absent and nonchronically absent students, and by gender.

In addition to statewide data, the reports are also available at the district and school site levels. Downloadable data files that support many aspects of the new AR reports are also available. To view the reports, visit dq.cde.ca.gov. Downloadable data files can be found at the CDE web site, at cde.ca.gov.