Portola Valley Elementary: attendance

19 empty seats, every school day.

On an average day in 2024–25, about 19 of Portola Valley Elementary's 495 students were not in school. Portola Valley Elementary is a basic aid district, funded by its own property taxes, so its revenue depends little on attendance.

19students absent on an average day

$701ka year in attendance funding those seats would bring

4.3%of students chronically absent

96.2%attendance rate; California 92.9%

Portola Valley Elementary's own schools, 2024–25. Charter schools are funded separately and left out. 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 district or charter school 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 it receive?

Attendance rate: 98.2%

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

10more students in school on an average day

3.6fewer days missed per student a year

$372kmore attendance funding a year, at 2024–25 rates

Portola Valley Elementary's attendance rate in 2024–25 was 96.2%. Each point is worth the same wherever it starts, since it is a point of every enrolled student's days. Portola Valley Elementary's funded ADA is close to its actual attendance, so a gain should reach its budget soon rather than being absorbed by the three-year protection. That is an estimate worth checking with the district.

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 Portola Valley Elementary students missed in 2024–25, 36% were unexcused, 64% excused (illness, appointments), 0% were independent study work not completed, and 0% were suspensions. In 2018–19, before COVID, 34% 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

Portola Valley Elementary has 134 fewer students than in 2014–15. California as a whole has 6.9% fewer, mostly because of the falling birth rate. Had Portola Valley Elementary changed at the state's pace it would have about 586; it has 495. About 91 more students than that trend have left, worth about $3.3M a year.

Portola Valley ElementaryCalifornia

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 476 students in school on an average day, against the 432 ADA the state funded.
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: the district's own. 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	575	3,571	20	555	526	$22,341	$443k
2020–21	491	2,036	11	480	487	$26,791	$303k
2021–22	477	3,864	21	456	488	$28,181	$605k
2022–23	515	5,077	28	487	468	$31,479	$888k
2023–24	504	3,890	22	482	447	$34,661	$749k
2024–25	495	3,359	19	476	432	$37,590	$701k