District reports drop in chronic absenteeism; DA abatement program credited with local successes

Dr. Cassandra Zyskin, Carmel Unified’s director of student services, presented the district’s annual attendance report to the board, saying the district’s chronic absenteeism rate declined from 12.4% to 11.4% comparing the 2023–24 and 2024–25 school years.

Zyskin framed attendance work around a 95 percent-attendance goal and reviewed subgroup trends pulled from the California Dashboard: English learners were reported at 8.3% chronic absence, students experiencing homelessness declined by 12.3%, and students with disabilities showed an increase. She noted five performance tiers and the district’s focus on MTSS (Multi-Tiered System of Supports) to identify root causes and match interventions.

The presentation highlighted campus-level improvement: Captain Cooper’s chronic absenteeism reportedly fell from roughly 20% in 2024 to 7.7% after site-level interventions. Zyskin described district practices now used to drive improvement: a uniform attendance code across sites, district home-and-hospital protocols, independent-study options that maintain attendance for off-campus learners, and districtwide attendance-illness letters at thresholds of 10 and 14 days that trigger supports.

Zyskin described a truancy abatement partnership with the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office that emphasizes supports rather than punitive measures. She said the DA abatement hearings—usually at tier 3 and most common for older students—include an in-person meeting with the student, parent and district staff, and that the program has led to positive outcomes; she said roughly four to five cases go to the DA’s office per year and that, in her experience, no student continued with poor attendance after that level of intervention.

Board members asked about what counts as an excused absence (Zyskin said weather/road closures count as excused but if a student does not engage in alternative instruction it still may count toward chronic absence), how economically disadvantaged or homeless students are identified (McKinney‑Vento supports and targeted resources such as gas cards), and whether the district tracks a quantitative breakdown by cause for absenteeism. Zyskin said the district does not currently have a reliable percentage breakdown by cause because parental reporting often lacks specific reasons, but agreed that collecting better cause data would be useful going forward.

Trustees and staff agreed on the importance of prevention messaging and student supports—teacher and staff relationships, early messaging to families, and proactive outreach were cited as primary prevention efforts. Zyskin said staff are continuing monthly tracking into the current school year and that the district has seen a continuation of decline with seasonal illness-related bumps earlier in the year.

The information item required no board action; trustees thanked staff for progress and asked staff to continue refining data collection and reporting.