Attendance · School

Livingston Middle

43 empty seats, every school day.

On an average day in 2024–25, about 43 of Livingston Middle's 809 students were not in school. The state pays Livingston Union for students who attend, so those empty seats were worth about $629k to the district that year.

43students absent on an average day
$629ka year in attendance funding those seats would bring
1 in 6students chronically absent (16.4%)
94.7%attendance rate; California 92.9%

2024–25. Attendance funding goes to Livingston Union, 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 Livingston Union receive?

Already above Merced County average (93.0%) and California before COVID (94.6%).

16more students in school on an average day
3.6fewer days missed per student a year
$237kmore attendance funding a year, at 2024–25 rates

Livingston Middle's attendance rate in 2024–25 was 94.7%. Each point is worth the same wherever it starts, since it is a point of every enrolled student's days.

Who is missing

Absence by grade

Share of students chronically absent (missing 10% or more of the days they were enrolled), by grade, 2024–25:

Kindergarten tends to run high for reasons usually put down to young children's health, transport and families' routines. A steady climb from grade 4 to grade 12 is the pattern discouragement would leave: absence that builds as students fall further behind.

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 Livingston Middle students missed in 2024–25, 21% were unexcused, 73% excused (illness, appointments), 2% were independent study work not completed, and 5% were suspensions. In 2018–19, before COVID, 17% 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

Livingston Middle has 66 fewer students than in 2014–15. Its district, Livingston Union, has 2.0% fewer. Had Livingston Middle changed at the district's pace it would have about 858; it has 809. 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. About 49 more students than that trend have left, worth about $673k a year.

Livingston MiddleLivingston Union
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 2024–25 this gives about 766 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: Livingston Union'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
2018–198305,386 30800 — $10,824$324k
2020–217892,338 13776 — $11,163$145k
2021–227969,032 50746 — $12,031$604k
2022–238339,047 50783 — $13,536$680k
2023–248428,081 45797 — $14,539$653k
2024–258097,726 43766 — $14,646$629k