California Data About

Attendance · School

Fort Sage Middle

1 empty seat, every school day.

On an average day in 2023–24, about 1 of Fort Sage Middle's 14 students were not in school. The state pays Fort Sage Unified for students who attend, so those empty seats were worth about $17k to the district that year.

1students absent on an average day
$17ka year in attendance funding those seats would bring
1 in 5students chronically absent (20.0%)
94.3%attendance rate; California 92.7%

2023–24. Attendance funding goes to Fort Sage Unified, so the empty seats are valued at the district's dollars per student. Method and sources at the foot of the page.

Enrolled, but not in school

Each bar is everyone enrolled that year. The blue part is how many were in school on an average day; the red part is how many were not.

In school on an average dayAbsent on an average day
Numbers on the bars: students absent on an average day. 2019–20 has no attendance data (COVID); 2020–21 was mostly distance learning.

What the empty seats are worth

California pays a school's district for each student in school on an average day (its Average Daily Attendance, or ADA). Each empty seat, valued at that year's dollars per ADA:

Hatched years: the state froze or protected attendance funding during COVID, so absences that year did not cut the money. Since 2022–23 a district is paid on the best of this year, last year or a three-year average, which softens a fall but also delays a rise.

What better attendance would bring

Attendance rate is the share of enrolled students in school on an average day. Move the slider to a higher rate: how many more seats would be filled, and what would Fort Sage Unified receive?

Already above Fort Sage Unified average (92.2%) and Lassen County average (92.6%).

0more students in school on an average day
3.6fewer days missed per student a year
$6kmore attendance funding a year, at 2023–24 rates

Fort Sage Middle's attendance rate in 2023–24 was 94.3%. Each point is worth the same wherever it starts, since it is a point of every enrolled student's days.

Who is missing

Some students carry far more of it

Groups too small for the state to report are left out. Foster youth and homeless students point to the transport, housing and family pressures outside school. They are real, and no school model removes them on its own.

Why days are missed

Of the days Fort Sage Middle students missed in 2023–24, 27% were unexcused, 73% excused (illness, appointments), 0% were independent study work not completed, and 0% were suspensions. In 2018–19, before COVID, 22% were unexcused. Unexcused absence, where no reason is given, is the kind most likely to reflect a student choosing not to come.

Students who left

Fort Sage Middle has 0 fewer students than in 2014–15. Its district, Fort Sage Unified, has 32.8% fewer. Had Fort Sage Middle changed at the district's pace it would have about 9; it has 14. A school's enrollment also moves with boundaries, programs and new schools nearby, so read this as a prompt to ask why rather than as a verdict. It has kept pace, so the opportunity is students who are enrolled and not coming.

Fort Sage MiddleFort Sage Unified
Enrollment as a share of 2014–15's. Census-day counts.

How we worked it out

  • Absent on an average day = every day of school missed by every student that year, divided by 180 school days. In school = census-day enrollment minus that. For 2023–24 this gives about 13 students in school on an average day.
  • Attendance rate = students in school on an average day ÷ students enrolled.
  • Dollars per ADA = LCFF revenue that year divided by funded ADA, from CDE's LCFF Summary Data: Fort Sage Unified's, since the district is paid for its schools' students. It includes the extra grants for low-income students and English learners, so it is what an added student brings, not the statewide base rate.
  • Years. The absence collection began in 2017–18, and some districts' figures jump the next year in a way that looks like a change in recording, so this page starts in 2018–19. 2019–20 has no attendance data (COVID). 2020–21 was mostly distance learning, when attendance meant something different.
  • Chronically absent is CDE's measure: a student who missed at least 10% of the days they were enrolled.
  • Sources: California Department of Education: Absenteeism by Reason and Chronic Absenteeism (DataQuest downloads), Census Day Enrollment, LCFF Summary Data, CAASPP research files and Free or Reduced Price Meal files.
The numbers behind the first two charts
YearEnrolledDays missedAbsent, average dayIn schoolFunded ADA$ per ADAValue of empty seats
2018–1920310 218 — $14,158$24k
2020–2117385 215 — $15,214$33k
2021–2214381 212 — $16,096$34k
2022–2314260 113 — $17,813$26k
2023–2414143 113 — $21,463$17k