Because K-12 public school funding in California is linked to districts’ average daily attendance, education officials have long focused on truancy. But focusing on truancy as a monetary issue trivializes its importance. There is a growing field of research that correlates bad school attendance with poor academic outcomes — especially eventually dropping out of high school.
This is why it’s disheartening to learn that about one in four state elementary students are classified as tardy under a state law that defines students as truants if they miss school or are more than 30 minutes late with no acceptable excuse three times in a school year. Those who miss 18 days or more a year are considered chronic truants. More than 250,000 elementary students were chronic truants in 2011-12.
Those statistics are from a study released by state Attorney General Kamala Harris, who joins a long list of educators and activists who seek a spotlight on truancy. They’re right to worry. A Columbia University analysis of high school dropouts found their average life expectancy is about nine years less than for high school graduates — one of the most troubling, telling statistics we’ve seen.
Getting kids to school regularly should be one of the most basic priorities of all — for parents, school districts, government and society in general. Here’s hoping Harris’ study pushes more Californians to that conclusion.