Washington High: attendance

21 empty seats, every school day.

On an average day in 2024–25, about 21 of Washington High's 126 students were not in school. The state pays Colton Joint Unified for students who attend, so those empty seats were worth about $336k to the district that year.

21students absent on an average day

$336ka year in attendance funding those seats would bring

1 in 2students chronically absent (47.1%)

83.0%attendance rate; California 92.9%

2024–25. Attendance funding goes to Colton Joint 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 Colton Joint Unified receive?

Attendance rate: 85.0%

3more students in school on an average day

3.6fewer days missed per student a year

$39kmore attendance funding a year, at 2024–25 rates

Washington High's attendance rate in 2024–25 was 83.0%. 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 Washington High students missed in 2024–25, 30% were unexcused, 14% excused (illness, appointments), 55% were independent study work not completed, and 1% were suspensions. In 2018–19, before COVID, 80% 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 Colton Joint Unified; Washington High 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) Washington High

27 schools with at least 50 students. Correlation between math results and chronic absence: −0.59 across all of them; −0.33 leaving out the 1 alternative schools; and −0.21 among the 9 where 90% or more of students are from low-income families. 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

Washington High has 24 fewer students than in 2014–15. Its district, Colton Joint Unified, has 21.0% fewer. Had Washington High changed at the district's pace it would have about 118; it has 126. 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.

Washington HighColton Joint 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 105 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: Colton Joint 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	75	3,835	21	54	—	$10,914	$233k
2020–21	84	3,511	20	64	—	$11,321	$221k
2021–22	29	1,773	10	19	—	$12,200	$120k
2022–23	242	3,762	21	221	—	$14,027	$293k
2023–24	174	2,972	17	157	—	$15,166	$250k
2024–25	126	3,860	21	105	—	$15,663	$336k