The new rate will credit districts for helping non-graduating seniors to earn a diploma the next year. It would be combined with the 4-year grad rate on the School Dashboard.
U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris championed tough-on-truancy laws while serving as San Francisco’s district attorney and California attorney general. Now she's taking heat for it on the campaign trail.
A 2010 video clip of California senator and presidential hopeful Kamala Harris advocating the prosecution of parents for their children's truancy has re-ignited controversy as schools statewide face greater scrutiny for their rates of chronic absenteeism.
Convinced that stigmatizing “bad schools” and dictating improvements didn't work, state officials are counting on district-led solutions to low achievement.
More than 1 in 10 students statewide were chronically absent from school in 2017-18. Rates for students in marginalized groups much higher than the state average.
Two near indicators – chronic absenteeism and college/career readiness – debut and reemphasize the need to boost attendance of younger students and better prepare high schoolers for post-graduation.
At least 40 percent of California school districts and charter schools have rates of chronic absence in grades K-8 that are high or very high based on new performance measures that will be unveiled next month.
Despite steady overall progress, gaps among student ethnic and racial groups persist. The new data will indicate which low-performing school districts will receive assistance when the California School Dashboard is released next month.
