New Brighton Middle: attendance

32 empty seats, every school day.

On an average day in 2024–25, about 32 of New Brighton Middle's 585 students were not in school. The state pays Soquel Union Elementary for students who attend, so those empty seats were worth about $381k to the district that year.

32students absent on an average day

$381ka year in attendance funding those seats would bring

1 in 6students chronically absent (15.8%)

94.5%attendance rate; California 92.9%

2024–25. Attendance funding goes to Soquel Union 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 Soquel Union Elementary receive?

Attendance rate: 96.5%

Already above Santa Cruz County average (93.1%).

12more students in school on an average day

3.6fewer days missed per student a year

$139kmore attendance funding a year, at 2024–25 rates

New Brighton Middle's attendance rate in 2024–25 was 94.5%. 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 New Brighton Middle students missed in 2024–25, 35% were unexcused, 65% 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

New Brighton Middle has 178 fewer students than in 2014–15. Its district, Soquel Union Elementary, has 26.0% fewer. Had New Brighton Middle changed at the district's pace it would have about 565; it has 585. 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.

New Brighton MiddleSoquel Union 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 553 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: Soquel Union 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	704	6,003	33	671	—	$8,567	$286k
2020–21	657	2,571	14	643	—	$8,819	$126k
2021–22	660	9,117	51	609	—	$9,229	$467k
2022–23	648	9,857	55	593	—	$10,504	$575k
2023–24	611	7,201	40	571	—	$11,415	$457k
2024–25	585	5,798	32	553	—	$11,843	$381k