Chico Unified board hears how attendance drives funding and student supports

Chico Unified School District trustees heard a detailed presentation about student attendance on April 2, including how attendance levels affect state funding and which interventions sites are using to bring students back to class. District staff and site leaders described data, auditing procedures and a suite of supports aimed at lowering chronic absenteeism.

The presentation, delivered by district attendance staff with site examples from Citrus Elementary and Bidwell Junior High, cited national research from Attendance Works showing chronic absenteeism is defined as missing 10 percent or more of the school year (roughly 18 days) and noted a nationwide figure of about 14.7 million students who met that threshold. The district reported that its Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) goal for attendance is 95.5 percent and that the district currently budgets using a 94 percent attendance assumption. "If we can increase to 95 percent, it would generate an additional $575,000 in funding," district staff said.

The district explained how California funding is tied to average daily attendance (ADA) and to three reporting options (current year, prior year, or a three-year average). Staff clarified that P2 reporting determines funding and that P2 is a rolling calculation of daily attendance rather than a single-day snapshot.

Staff described two primary attendance-recovery mechanisms: short-term independent study (15 days or less) and a rebranded Saturday Success Academy that allows students to make up missed instructional minutes under a certificated teacher of record. Staff gave examples of recovered ADA in recent years (short-term independent study recovered roughly 30–48 ADA in given years; Saturday sessions typically recovered smaller ADA totals). The district also uses an "adopt-a-student" approach and targeted- case management to monitor students whose attendance is near problematic thresholds.

Site leaders described local practices that contributed to gains. David McKay, principal at Citrus, said his school uses positive messaging (changing tardy slips to greet students), weekly punch cards and schoolwide celebrations to encourage attendance; Citrus' targeted case manager, Jess Alonzo, conducts family outreach and home visits for students in need. Bidwell Junior High staff said they rebranded Saturday programming and ran regular messaging campaigns; Bidwell estimated that a 0.5 percentage-point increase in attendance districtwide would require roughly 900 additional daily decisions by students to attend school over the year, illustrating how incremental increases depend on many individual actions.

Staff emphasized that school-site roles—attendance clerks, targeted case managers, counselors and wellness teams—are central to early intervention. The district also described monitoring meetings under a multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) where teams review student-level data (attendance, grades, discipline) to identify who needs targeted help and to tailor interventions.

On enforcement and escalation, staff walked trustees through the district's stair-step truancy process: automated weekly truancy letters (generated on Tuesday) for unexcused absences, follow-up by site staff, case-management plans and, if those efforts do not produce improvement, referral to School Attendance Review (SAR) hearings. Staff said SAR proceedings may include community agencies and, in some cases, referral to attendance court. The district reported roughly 108 SAR pairings last year and a similar pace this year in a district of about 12,300 students.

District staff also described recordkeeping and audits: attendance data are reported to CalPADS (the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System), and the district uses an outside auditor (HMS) to validate parent notifications and attendance logs because ADA drives material funding for the district.

Trustees asked multiple clarifying questions during the presentation about what counts as an absence (the district confirmed an "all-day" absence is required for the chronic-absenteeism mark but that period absences are counted at secondary sites), how thresholds are set for site lists, and how short-term independent study agreements are managed. Staff said they are revising short-term independent-study packets to reflect essential skills and to make preemptive agreements available for families planning predictable absences.

The presentation closed with staff asking for continued community engagement and parent communication ahead of the P2 reporting period in May. The board did not take formal action on policy; the presentation was informational and staff will return with more data as requests for disaggregated comparisons and parent outreach are developed.

Sources: presentation to the Chico Unified School District Board of Trustees, April 2 (district staff and site leaders).