1,143,668. That’s how many California kids the statewide DataQuest chronic absenteeism report counted as chronically absent in 2024-25. Not a rate. Kids. Here’s how to get your district’s number onto your next board memo.
That’s CDE’s number, not ours. I checked it against the state’s 2024-25 chronic absenteeism download file.
I don’t like working with percentages. It removes the impact. These are hundreds or thousands of kids sometimes. This fall I told a district leader that it’s not that the board doesn’t care about education and kids. It’s that they really do have to think about the business of the district. When you have the numbers, here’s how many teachers I need, it’s a slam dunk, because you got the data and you can tell that story.
PACE and Attendance Works published the same 1,143,668 in February 2026, using CDE data.
I’d rather talk kids than colors. Your board already argues about the Dashboard. A count of names is harder to argue with.
What the state actually counted
CDE’s chronic absenteeism file structure treats a student as chronically absent if they were eligible at that reporting level and absent for 10 percent or more of the days they were expected to attend. A day attended is any day the student attended for all or part of a school day. Eligible enrollment starts from cumulative enrollment and drops students expected to attend fewer than 31 instructional days, students who were enrolled but did not attend, and exempt statuses such as nonpublic school, home or hospital, or full-time community college.
Statewide eligible enrollment on that 2024-25 download is 5,903,507. CBEDS enrollment is a different pile. Mix them and the board memo starts arguing with itself.
On the same 2024-25 chronic absenteeism file, 739,261 of 3,309,883 eligible Hispanic or Latino students were chronically absent, and 91,217 of 291,149 eligible African American students. Grade span rows put 130,113 chronically absent students in TK and kindergarten and 462,077 in grades 9 through 12.
PACE also counted 2,350 elementary schools with high or extreme chronic absence in 2024-25. That is a school count, not a kid count. It is still a place to start.
CDE has posted a 2025-26 download on the same files page. I have not opened a statewide total from it yet. The number in the headline is 2024-25.
What it means in a district building
A statewide total does not assign you a quota. It tells you the problem is still this large, and that a Dashboard arrow is not a plan.
If you can still reach a student this year, pick a statute. Short-term independent study is for days a pupil is actually in that program, under Education Code 51747. Attendance Recovery is extra instruction that can offset an absence, including chronic absenteeism, under Education Code 46211. CDE’s Attendance Recovery page describes an alternate chronic absenteeism rate that recovered days can feed. It does not change the Dashboard or DataQuest rate. Saturday school is still Education Code 37223. CDE’s Attendance Recovery webinar says Saturday school does not affect the chronic absenteeism rate. Three files. Not one Saturday.
Partner districts that actually moved a board did it with a count of names, not a rate on a slide. The audit and the funding came after the file was real, pupil by pupil.
Your SIS is your system of record. Attendly is your system of action. Open your district’s DataQuest report, switch it to your district, and write three numbers at the top of the memo: eligible enrollment, the chronic absence count, and the count at your highest elementary and your highest high school. Then pick one path per absence.
When the 2025-26 file is checked, I’ll send the new count. Stay on the list.
Sources
- CDE DataQuest, 2024-25 Chronic Absenteeism Rate, state
- CDE chronic absenteeism downloadable files, including
chronicabsenteeism25(updated 13-Mar-2026). Statewide totals in this post use Aggregate Level T, Charter School All, DASS All, Reporting Category TA. Hispanic or Latino is Reporting Category RH. African American is Reporting Category RB. - CDE file structure: Chronic Absenteeism Data
- PACE and Attendance Works, February 2026 (PDF)
- PACE publication page
- Education Code 51747
- Education Code 46211
- Education Code 37223
- CDE Attendance Recovery
- CDE instructional time
Where Attendly fits
