Student Absences

Key Terms

Average Daily Attendance (ADA) - is the # of days of a school a student attends divided by the total # of days of instruction. A student attending every day would equal 1 ADA. ADA is typically calculated at the school level rather than the student level.

Truancy - In California, a student is truant if he/she is absent or tardy by more than 30 minutes without a valid excuse on 3 occasions in a school year.

Habitual Truancy - A student is habitually truant if he/she is absent without a valid excuse for 5 days during a school year

Chronic Truancy - A student is chronically truant if he/she is absent without a valid excuse for at least 10% of the school year.

Chronic Absence - In California, chronic absence is defined as being absent for any reason (excused or unexcused) for at least 10% of the school year. Thus, in a 175-180 day school year a student who misses 18 days of school or more is chronically absent.

Excused Absence - Valid excuses may include illness, Doctor or Dentist appointments, personal reasons justified by a parent or guardian, & other reasons within the discretion of school administrators.