Lake Tahoe Unified School District to focus on keeping kids in school

The Lake Tahoe Unified School District is renewing their focus on raising the attendance rates of students in the district's seven schools. Not only is being at school essential to a good education, it's also essential to the District's budget.

On Tuesday, the LTUSD Board will vote on a proclamation to declare September as "Attendance Awareness Month." They want parents, students, teachers, staff, administrators and the community to focus on "Every School Day Matters" and help keep kids in school.

During the 2013/14 school year, the attendance rates were:

Bijou - 92.3%
Magnet School (LTESMS) - 95.5%
Sierra House - 94%
Tahoe Valley - 92.6%
STMS - 92.1%
STHS - 89.1%
Mt. Tallac - 74.1%

The District looses about $252,000 per year for every 1% of attendance that is lost. Even excused absences such as illness contribute to the attendance rate. Under the new Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) the loss will be approximately $66/day.

Any student that misses 10% of the school year (2 to 3 days per month)can add up to academic trouble. Chronic absenteeism is a serious impediment to learning. This is a national problem, and not just in South Lake Tahoe. According to the Attendance Works advocacy organization, research shows that 5 million to 7.5 million students are missing nearly a month of school every year.

Their research shows that too many absences in the early grades can leave children unable to master reading by the end of third grade, a key indicator of school success. By middle and high school, chronic absence becomes a red flag that a student may not graduate from high school.