Chronic absenteeism rampant at LAUSD, newspaper reports

Nearly half of all students in the Los Angeles Unified School District have been chronically absent this school year, meaning they have missed at least 9% of classes, the L.A. Times reported Thursday.

“This more than twofold increase from pre-pandemic years reveals yet another hit to education with widespread learning disruptions even as campuses are open for in-person learning,” the Times reported.

The newspaper used the state Public Records Act to obtain attendance data from the district. The numbers show chronic absenteeism, already considered high at 19% pre-pandemic, soared to 46% so far in the 2021-22 school year.

Superintendent Alberto Carvalho told the Times that the problem is “one of the highest levels of concern. If the student is not in the classroom, the student is not going to learn.”