La Entrada Middle: attendance

25 empty seats, every school day.

On an average day in 2024–25, about 25 of La Entrada Middle's 612 students were not in school. Its district, Las Lomitas Elementary, is a basic aid district, funded by its own property taxes, so its revenue depends little on attendance.

25students absent on an average day

$689ka year in attendance funding those seats would bring

1 in 15students chronically absent (6.7%)

95.9%attendance rate; California 92.9%

2024–25. Attendance funding goes to Las Lomitas Elementary, 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 Las Lomitas Elementary receive?

Attendance rate: 97.9%

Already above San Mateo County average (94.1%) and California before COVID (94.6%).

12more students in school on an average day

3.6fewer days missed per student a year

$339kmore attendance funding a year, at 2024–25 rates

La Entrada Middle's attendance rate in 2024–25 was 95.9%. 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 La Entrada Middle students missed in 2024–25, 25% were unexcused, 74% excused (illness, appointments), 0% were independent study work not completed, and 0% were suspensions. In 2018–19, before COVID, 28% 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

La Entrada Middle has 164 fewer students than in 2014–15. Its district, Las Lomitas Elementary, has 17.9% fewer. Had La Entrada Middle changed at the district's pace it would have about 637; it has 612. 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 25 more students than that trend have left, worth about $668k a year. Real money, but less than the empty seats: here the bigger opportunity is students who are enrolled and not coming.

La Entrada MiddleLas Lomitas Elementary

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 587 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: Las Lomitas Elementary'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	745	4,706	26	719	—	$16,135	$422k
2020–21	656	2,426	13	643	—	$19,949	$269k
2021–22	605	5,176	29	576	—	$22,049	$634k
2022–23	595	4,587	25	570	—	$24,623	$627k
2023–24	591	3,552	20	571	—	$26,465	$522k
2024–25	612	4,480	25	587	—	$27,687	$689k