Attendance · School

King City High

2024–25. Attendance funding goes to South Monterey County Joint Union High, 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.

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:

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 South Monterey County Joint Union High receive?

King City High's attendance rate in 2024–25 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

Why days are missed

Of the days King City High students missed in 2024–25, 29% were unexcused, 69% excused (illness, appointments), 0% were independent study work not completed, and 1% were suspensions. In 2018–19, before COVID, 30% 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

King City High has 252 more students than in 2014–15. Its district, South Monterey County Joint Union High, has 31.1% more. Had King City High changed at the district's pace it would have about 1,242; it has 1,199. 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 43 more students than that trend have left, worth about $697k a year. Real money, but less than the empty seats: here the bigger 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 2024–25 this gives about 1,131 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: South Monterey County Joint Union High'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

Year	Enrolled	Days missed	Absent, average day	In school	Funded ADA	$ per ADA	Value of empty seats
2018–19	1,084	9,066	50	1,034	—	$11,948	$602k
2020–21	1,198	4,479	25	1,173	—	$12,658	$315k
2021–22	1,238	15,904	88	1,150	—	$13,797	$1.2M
2022–23	1,227	14,315	80	1,147	—	$15,654	$1.2M
2023–24	1,200	12,948	72	1,128	—	$17,066	$1.2M
2024–25	1,199	12,271	68	1,131	—	$17,243	$1.2M