The Sacramento Bee – Loretta Kalb
“Sacramento County school districts in Natomas and Galt posted among the highest truancy rates in the region in the 2013-14 school year, new data from the California Department of Education show. In Natomas Unified School District, nearly 8,000 students – or 57 percent of enrollment – were classified as truant in the 2013-14 school year, according to the state. In the Galt Joint Union High School District, a much smaller system with about 2,300 students, 87 percent of the students were reported as truant. Superintendents for both districts told The Sacramento Bee that the numbers they reported to the state were mistakenly overstated. Their observations signal a larger difficulty: Many schools struggle to understand what are excused absences and how to consistently record the data.”(more)