Attendance · School

Packard Children's Hospital/Stanford

0 empty seats, every school day.

On an average day in 2024–25, about 0 of Packard Children's Hospital/Stanford's 15 students were not in school. Its district, Palo Alto Unified, is a basic aid district, funded by its own property taxes, so its revenue depends little on attendance.

0students absent on an average day
$0ka year in attendance funding those seats would bring
0.0%of students chronically absent
100.0%attendance rate; California 92.9%

2024–25. Attendance funding goes to Palo Alto 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 Palo Alto Unified receive?

Already above Palo Alto Unified average (95.1%), Santa Clara County average (93.8%), and California before COVID (94.6%).

0more students in school on an average day
3.6fewer days missed per student a year
$8kmore attendance funding a year, at 2024–25 rates

Packard Children's Hospital/Stanford's attendance rate in 2024–25 was 100.0%. Each point is worth the same wherever it starts, since it is a point of every enrolled student's days.

Behind, and staying away

Each dot is a school in Palo Alto Unified; Packard Children's Hospital/Stanford 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)
17 schools with at least 50 students. Correlation between math results and chronic absence: −0.54 across all of them. Dot size: enrollment. Hover a dot for the school. Packard Children's Hospital/Stanford isn't on it: it has no math result or too few students for that year.

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

Packard Children's Hospital/Stanford has 25 fewer students than in 2014–15. Its district, Palo Alto Unified, has 18.5% fewer. Had Packard Children's Hospital/Stanford changed at the district's pace it would have about 33; it has 15. 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 18 more students than that trend have left, worth about $492k a year.

Packard Children's Hospital/StanfordPalo Alto 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 15 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: Palo Alto 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
YearEnrolledDays missedAbsent, average dayIn schoolFunded ADA$ per ADAValue of empty seats
2022–23100 010 — $22,957$0k
2023–24200 020 — $25,429$0k
2024–25150 015 — $27,954$0k