Attendance · District
Laguna Joint Elementary
1 empty seat, every school day.
On an average day in 2022–23, about 1 of Laguna Joint Elementary's 16 students were not in school. The state pays for students who attend, so those empty seats were worth about $19k that year.
Laguna Joint Elementary's own schools, 2022–23. Charter schools are funded separately and left out. 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.
What the empty seats are worth
California pays a district or charter school 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:
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 it receive?
Laguna Joint Elementary's attendance rate in 2022–23 was 94.8%. Each point is worth the same wherever it starts, since it is a point of every enrolled student's days. Laguna Joint Elementary's funded ADA is above its actual attendance (the three-year protection), so part of a gain would first be absorbed before it reached the budget.
Who is missing
Why days are missed
Of the days Laguna Joint Elementary students missed in 2022–23, 5% were unexcused, 95% excused (illness, appointments), 0% were independent study work not completed, and 0% were suspensions. In 2018–19, before COVID, 13% 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
Laguna Joint Elementary has 2 fewer students than in 2014–15. California as a whole has 6.2% fewer, mostly because of the falling birth rate. Had Laguna Joint Elementary changed at the state's pace it would have about 17; it has 16. It has kept pace, so the opportunity is students who are enrolled and not coming.
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 2022–23 this gives about 15 students in school on an average day, against the 19 ADA the state funded.
- 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: the district's own. 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
| Year | Enrolled | Days missed | Absent, average day | In school | Funded ADA | $ per ADA | Value of empty seats |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018–19 | 14 | 164 | 1 | 13 | 14 | $11,790 | $11k |
| 2020–21 | 14 | 85 | 0 | 14 | 10 | $15,995 | $8k |
| 2021–22 | 21 | 199 | 1 | 20 | 19 | $22,963 | $25k |
| 2022–23 | 16 | 150 | 1 | 15 | 19 | $22,963 | $19k |