Chronically Absent Students Cost City Heights Schools More Than 3 Million

By Joanne Faryon and Kevin Crowe

Student 114 is a sophomore at Lincoln High in Southeast San Diego. What makes her exceptional is the number of school days she missed last year – 87, or nearly half the 10th grade.

She cost her school $2,464.71.

A KPBS-Watchdog Institute investigation found there are thousands of chronically absent kids in San Diego County schools who together cost their districts millions of dollars in state funding.

During the 2009-2010 term, traditional public schools in San Diego County lost out on at least $102 million in state funding because of absences, according to data gathered by KPBS and the Watchdog Institute, an investigative reporting nonprofit based at San Diego State University. That figure totaled $624 million over the past five years.

Click here to read the rest of the report and see missed revenue at your school.

View KPBS’s Envision San Diego documentary on Lincoln High School for an in-depth look at the factors that keep many low-income students out of the classroom.