18.3 Million Hours Missed

Last week marked the fourth and final statewide attendance patterns and trend report presented by SI&A to the California Department of Education. This report provided an analysis of 350,000 statewide student enrollment cohort’s attendance during the 2020-21 school year.

The findings were consistent with previous and align with national trends: The most vulnerable students were often the hardest hit during the pandemic, and as a result, had the greatest increase in chronic absenteeism.

Key findings from the report included:

• Black and brown students experienced a 50%+ rate of increase in chronic absenteeism, year over year in 2020-21 when compared to 2019-20.

• Nearly half of the students classified as chronically absent were severely chronic, missing 35 or more days of school.

• Using 6 hours of instructional time per day as a multiplier, the cohort missed a collective 18.3 million hours of learning time. (Chart below)

• Schools that reopened in the spring for partial in-person instruction, aka hybrid instruction, actually experienced higher rates of absenteeism than when they were fully remote.

To move ahead successfully, districts will need to implement thoughtful, long-term plans with scaled strategies to shape and reinforce strong attendance behavior. Click here to review the entire report.