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Seaside High principal warns of chronic absenteeism and lower state-test participation
Summary
Seaside High School presented data showing about 54% of students meet the districtdefinition of chronic absenteeism and that statewide test participation and proficiency have declined since essential-skills testing was made optional; principal Jeff Roberts outlined interventions including freshman-success teams and outreach.
Seaside High School presented a data-rich report to the Seaside SD 10 school board on April 15 that highlighted chronic absenteeism, behavior referrals tied to phone violations, and declines in statewide test participation.
"When you look at that data point to the right, that 54 percent of our students in the high school would be considered chronically absent," said Jeff Roberts, noting chronically absent means missing more than 10% of enrolled days. Roberts said a sample daily attendance snapshot on April 8 showed about 83% attendance that day and that a separate calculation showed roughly 17% of students absent on that date; he explained that in a 170-day student calendar, missing 17 days equals about three weeks of school.
Roberts attributed some behavior-referral inflation to phone violations: of 264 recorded incidents this year, 157 were for students being caught with phones; only 27 incidents resulted in out-of-school suspensions. He said the district is addressing attendance through targeted family outreach, freshman-success teams, counseling contacts and community partners, and by expanding CTE and extracurricular opportunities to improve engagement.
On statewide assessments Roberts said participation and measured proficiency dropped after essential-skills tests were no longer required for diplomas: participation fell from pre-pandemic levels (around 95%–80%) to lower rates, and proficiency percentages fell (examples cited: writing and math achievement declines). Roberts cautioned that lower reported proficiency reflects both participation declines and changes in what counts as a diploma requirement, and he urged attention to multiple measures of student learning.
The board asked follow-up questions about how attendance data is collected and how family-reported reasons are routed to counseling and support services; Roberts described the district's triage process for connecting families to counseling, nursing and community resources.
