Santiago Hills Elementary: attendance

18 empty seats, every school day.

On an average day in 2024–25, about 18 of Santiago Hills Elementary's 548 students were not in school. The state pays Irvine Unified for students who attend, so those empty seats were worth about $220k to the district that year.

18students absent on an average day

$220ka year in attendance funding those seats would bring

1 in 19students chronically absent (5.2%)

96.7%attendance rate; California 92.9%

2024–25. Attendance funding goes to Irvine 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 Irvine Unified receive?

Attendance rate: 98.7%

Already above Irvine Unified average (95.4%), Orange County average (94.0%), and California before COVID (94.6%).

11more students in school on an average day

3.6fewer days missed per student a year

$131kmore attendance funding a year, at 2024–25 rates

Santiago Hills Elementary's attendance rate in 2024–25 was 96.7%. 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 Santiago Hills Elementary students missed in 2024–25, 26% were unexcused, 74% excused (illness, appointments), 0% were independent study work not completed, and 0% were suspensions. In 2018–19, before COVID, 32% were unexcused. Unexcused absence, where no reason is given, is the kind most likely to reflect a student choosing not to come.

Behind, and staying away

Each dot is a school in Irvine Unified; Santiago Hills Elementary is the one ringed in black. Across, how far its students were from the state's math standard in spring 2025; up, the share chronically absent in 2024–25. Colour is the share of students from low-income families.

Under 60% low-income 60–90% 90% or more Charter school Alternative school (continuation, independent study) Santiago Hills Elementary

44 schools with at least 50 students. Correlation between math results and chronic absence: −0.75 across all of them; −0.32 leaving out the 1 alternative schools. Dot size: enrollment. Hover a dot for the school.

What this does and doesn't show. Where students are furthest behind, absence runs highest. Where the link holds among places serving almost entirely low-income families, it isn't only family income. It fits the idea that discouraged students stay away. It can't show which comes first: missing school also puts students behind. Proving the direction is what the sponsored schools are for.

Students who left

Santiago Hills Elementary has 71 fewer students than in 2014–15. Its district, Irvine Unified, has 21.1% more. Had Santiago Hills Elementary changed at the district's pace it would have about 750; it has 548. 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 200 more students than that trend have left, worth about $2.3M a year.

Santiago Hills ElementaryIrvine 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 2024–25 this gives about 530 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: Irvine 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

Year	Enrolled	Days missed	Absent, average day	In school	Funded ADA	$ per ADA	Value of empty seats
2018–19	582	2,949	16	566	—	$8,919	$146k
2020–21	236	951	5	231	—	$9,210	$49k
2021–22	530	3,868	21	509	—	$9,662	$208k
2022–23	548	4,074	23	525	—	$10,950	$248k
2023–24	561	3,606	20	541	—	$11,862	$238k
2024–25	548	3,301	18	530	—	$11,997	$220k