Youth Perspectives: The Cost of Cutting Class

From Ferris Bueller to Bart Simpson, students skipping school has long been a recognized nuisance among teachers and administration. My fellow high school seniors are especially infamous for their poor attendance during second semester, a phenomenon diagnosed as "senioritis."

Unfortunately, increasing student absences—even those "excused" by a parent—can cost the school district thousands of dollars. In the Pleasanton Unified School District,  the cost of an non-medical related school absence is $51.54 per student per day.

Why does the school district lose money when students cut class? What measures (if any) should we take to promote student attendance? I spoke with those at Amador Valley High School to find out more, and discovered  that both students and administration say that they support greater awareness of the monetary cost of cutting school.

Currently, the California education system's policy rewards schools with money for high student attendance, based on the district's Average Daily Attendance. According to EdSource, the figure is calculated by dividing the total number of days of student attendance divided by the total number of days in the regular school year.

Average Daily Attendance does not count absences due to prolonged medical issues, but does include "extended weekends, family trips or other reasons," according to the district. At Amador Valley, a student is officially considered absent for the day if they miss 4 or more periods in the day.

When students skip school or have their parents excuse them, the school district's revenue takes the hit.

Based on data from the California School Finance Center, Pleasanton has a 98.6 percent attendance rate. While this is a relatively high percentage, when you consider that each student costs $51.54, our district loses approximately $10,220.38 a year from students missing school.

In perspective, recent furlough days in the school district saved $441,000 dollars. While $10,000 may seem like a drop in the bucket, given our current school budget crunch, Pleasanton schools need all the revenue they can get.

"The majority of students are at school almost every day," says Amador Valley Vice Principal Ben Fobert, "but the students with attendance issues are often the students with grade issues, which means they are not getting the education they need either."

Fobert says he also gets frustrated when some students' parents repeatedly "lie and call [their child] in sick" to avoid admitting that the student is skipping school.

Pleasanton currently does not demand that families pay for a student's absence; the district encourages donations of $51.54 to be made if a student misses school, but to enforce this rule would cause widespread controversy.

Other schools districts in California have different policies to promote student attendance and maximize revenue. Santa Ana Unified School District reportedly awards students with large prizes for perfect attendance, such as a brand new car.

"Material incentives seem a little excessive to me," says senior student Mana Jammalamadaka, giving her opinion on Santa Ana's attendance bribe. She also disagrees with the idea of a district billing students' families to pay for the lost ADA revenue.

Classmate Dhruv Dhall proposes a different solution. "There should be no unwarranted sign-outs," he says. "Considering the budget cuts, students should have a limited number of times they can be called out of school."

Vivienne Chen is a graduating senior at Amador Valley High School.