A week before classes at Los Angeles Unified began earlier this month, attendance workers tasked with fighting chronic absenteeism fanned out across the city, visiting the homes of children to make sure they’d show up for the first day of instruction.
Knocking on the doors where kids had repeatedly missed school, the workers told parents of assistance the district could offer with transportation, school supplies, and even clothing.
The effort, a standard strategy for LAUSD at this point, was designed and implemented by the district after the pandemic, when the number of students deemed chronically absent reached nearly half of total enrollment.
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Since then, the number of kids missing class has fallen, but it’s still nearly one-third of all students, so LA Unified has continued its push, said superintendent Alberto Carvalho.
“The first priority is having kids at school,” he said. “We need kids in school.”