Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
School Truancy Crisis Creating 'Dire Consequences' for California
By admin
Published 2 years ago on
April 9, 2023

Share

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Gadflies – people obsessed with righting some perceived wrong and pester politicians and journalists to take up their causes – are a constant feature of politics.

One of the state’s more persistent gadflies these days is Thomas Carter, an accountant in Sherman Oaks who sends out almost daily barrages of emails about truancy in public schools, demanding that authorities recognize and address what he regards as a crisis.

“From what school will come the next ignored student to commit crimes, including a mass gun shooting, or be an ignored child abused at a school or in a home, or to become homeless, if a dropout?” is a typical heading on one of Carter’s lengthy emails.

Dan Walters with a serious expression

Dan Walters

CalMatters

Opinion

Carter, in an interview, said he became concerned about the issue more than 30 years ago when, as a single parent, he discovered that his son had been missing school and he was not informed of the absences.

“Since then, I’ve been asking the questions,” Carter said. His complaints include sections of the education code that permit, but do not require, chronic truancy to be reported to law enforcement authorities, who could intervene but rarely do.

Carter may be a gadfly whose emails are automatically diverted into the junk file of many recipients, but he has a point about truancy. Surprisingly large numbers of the state’s almost 6 million public school students often don’t show up in class.

Two new reports from the Public Policy Institute of California frame the issue.

‘Stark Increase’ in Absenteeism

“Thirty percent of California public school students were chronically absent from school in 2021-22 – a near tripling of the percentage in 2018-19,” PPIC policy director Laura Hill and research associate Emmanuel Prunty wrote in the first report. “Although we do not know if this stark increase in chronic absenteeism, defined as missing at least 10% of the school year or at least 18 days, will continue, the data from last year raises concerns about the pace of students’ learning recovery after the educational setbacks of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The PPIC added that “this measure of chronic absenteeism – which includes both excused and unexcused absences – actually underestimates the true scope of missed school because it does not include students who missed fewer than 18 days and does not capture exactly how much instruction students missed (some students may have missed many more than 18 days).”

The second report, merging data about truancy with academic test results, declares, “We find that schools with greater increases in chronic absenteeism saw steeper drops in proficiency rates on the Smarter Balanced (SBAC) English and math tests, when comparing pre-pandemic levels (2018-19) to 2021-22.”

Some of the truancy surge can be attributed to the aftereffects of schools being shuttered during the pandemic – but not all, because the problem isn’t a new one. A 2013 report by the state Department of Justice tabbed chronic truancy at about 20% and declared, “California is facing an attendance crisis, with dire consequences for our economy, our safety, and our children.”

So, one might wonder, why is this evident crisis not given as much attention as it warrants?

State school finance is based largely on attendance and when students are chronically absent, it should have negative financial consequences. However, during the pandemic, the state loosened up on the attendance-based formulas, including allowing reimbursable attendance to be calculated over several years rather than year-by-year, so the immediate financial impacts are muted.

Moreover, there’s been a push by school officials, particularly those with declining numbers of students, to change financial aid from using attendance to enrollment, which would allow them to get money even for enrolled students who are chronically absent.

Such a change would indirectly encourage authorities to ignore chronic truancy.

About the Author

Dan Walters has been a journalist for nearly 60 years, spending all but a few of those years working for California newspapers. He began his professional career in 1960, at age 16, at the Humboldt Times. For more columns by Walters, go to calmatters.org/commentary.

Make Your Voice Heard

GV Wire encourages vigorous debate from people and organizations on local, state, and national issues. Submit your op-ed to rreed@gvwire.com for consideration. 

 

RELATED TOPICS:

DON'T MISS

‘It’s Living Hell’: Nurses Say CA Addiction Recovery Program Ended Their Careers

DON'T MISS

Santa Who? Bizarre Christmas Traditions Stealing the Holiday Spotlight

DON'T MISS

New Decisions Boost California’s Zero-Emission Vehicle Mandate, but Major Hurdles Remain

DON'T MISS

Only $20K More to Bring Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to Fresno

DON'T MISS

Jeffrey Sachs Warns of Looming US War With Iran

DON'T MISS

Cat House on the Kings Urgently Needs You to Donate Dollars and Adopt Your New Best Friend

DON'T MISS

The Surprising Sexual Politics of Nicole Kidman’s Kinky ‘Babygirl’

DON'T MISS

Why It’s Hard to Control What Gets Taught in Public Schools

DON'T MISS

FDA Approves Weight-Loss Drug to Treat Obstructive Sleep Apnea

DON'T MISS

In a Calendar Rarity, Hanukkah Starts This Year on Christmas Day

UP NEXT

The Surprising Sexual Politics of Nicole Kidman’s Kinky ‘Babygirl’

UP NEXT

Tax Loopholes Cost California and Its Cities $107 Billion but Get Little Scrutiny

UP NEXT

24 for 24

UP NEXT

Did You Know Fresno County Doesn’t Have a Tax Assessor?

UP NEXT

Congress Can Give Us Clean Affordable Energy in 2025

UP NEXT

He Has Prison in His Past. Now He Hopes Law School Is in His Future

UP NEXT

Can New State Regs Resolve California’s Property Insurance Crisis?

UP NEXT

The First New Foreign Policy Challenge for Trump Just Became Clear

UP NEXT

Brian Thompson, Not Luigi Mangione, Is the Real Working-Class Hero

UP NEXT

Why CA Needs to Double-Down on Its Apprenticeship Programs

Only $20K More to Bring Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to Fresno

16 hours ago

Jeffrey Sachs Warns of Looming US War With Iran

1 day ago

Cat House on the Kings Urgently Needs You to Donate Dollars and Adopt Your New Best Friend

1 day ago

The Surprising Sexual Politics of Nicole Kidman’s Kinky ‘Babygirl’

1 day ago

Why It’s Hard to Control What Gets Taught in Public Schools

1 day ago

FDA Approves Weight-Loss Drug to Treat Obstructive Sleep Apnea

1 day ago

In a Calendar Rarity, Hanukkah Starts This Year on Christmas Day

1 day ago

A Look at the $100 Billion in Disaster Relief in the Government Spending Bill

1 day ago

It’s Eggnog Season. The Boozy Beverage Dates Back to Medieval England but Remains a Holiday Hit

1 day ago

9-Year-Old Among 5 Killed in Christmas Market Attack in Germany

1 day ago

‘It’s Living Hell’: Nurses Say CA Addiction Recovery Program Ended Their Careers

Bobbie Sage thought nursing would be her salvation. She was trapped in an abusive relationship with four kids and looking for a steady incom...

15 hours ago

15 hours ago

‘It’s Living Hell’: Nurses Say CA Addiction Recovery Program Ended Their Careers

15 hours ago

Santa Who? Bizarre Christmas Traditions Stealing the Holiday Spotlight

16 hours ago

New Decisions Boost California’s Zero-Emission Vehicle Mandate, but Major Hurdles Remain

16 hours ago

Only $20K More to Bring Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to Fresno

1 day ago

Jeffrey Sachs Warns of Looming US War With Iran

1 day ago

Cat House on the Kings Urgently Needs You to Donate Dollars and Adopt Your New Best Friend

1 day ago

The Surprising Sexual Politics of Nicole Kidman’s Kinky ‘Babygirl’

1 day ago

Why It’s Hard to Control What Gets Taught in Public Schools

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend