Chronic absence among students in foster care peaked after the pandemic, with nearly half chronically absent in 2021–22¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associational r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 2025 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person · recheck by 2030: baselines and conditions change

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Students in foster care remained much more likely to be chronically absent than other high-need groups, reaching 39 percent chronically absent in 2021–22 versus 28 percent for all students. → Ximenes Barrat 2025

Evidence¶

Ximenes Barrat 2025¶

Ximenes Barrat, V., Diercks, C., Berliner, B., Derby, K., Chen Gaddini, M., & Pivnick, L. (2025). Revisiting California's invisible achievement gap: Trends in education outcomes of students in foster care in the context of the local control funding formula. WestEd. https://www.wested.org/resource/revisiting-californias-invisible-achievement-gap/

q2 · i? · associational · r2

Analysis of CDE CALPADS data, 2016–17 through 2022–23, defining chronic absence as missing 10 percent or more of expected attendance days. When absences peaked in 2021–22, students in foster care with any absences averaged 24 days absent versus 17 for all students.

"students in foster care, who were struggling with attendance even prior to the pandemic, remained much more likely to be chronically absent compared to students in other high-need groups. In 2021–22, nearly half of students in foster care were chronically absent"

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

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• California kindergarten English learners' chronic absenteeism nearly tripled from 14.5 percent in 2018–19 to 43.1 percent in 2021–22, easing only gradually to 37.1 percent in 2022–23 — related
• By 2021–22, 36 percent of English learners were chronically absent versus 30 percent of students overall, reversing a prepandemic attendance advantage — related
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