From the Desk of Dianne Talarico

A Message From Our Superintendent:

Increasing Student Attendance Increases School Funding

We are grateful to all the parents, staff and community members who have worked diligently to help us fulfill the mission of extraordinary achievement for all, while striving for even higher levels of success for the children in our communities.

This year we face the challenge of continuing to provide excellent educational opportunities while making significant budget reductions. We are confident that we will succeed, but we need your help during this difficult time. You can help us increase state funding to our schools simply by increasing the number of days that your child is in school. Increasing attendance is a win-win for all of us. Students are in school and learning, and for every day they are present, our district receives more funding from the state.

Although Santa Monica-Malibu Unified has excellent attendance rates (approximately 95% at school sites), there is still room for improvement. On the average, there are five hundred students absent each day. If just fifty of those students came to school, the district would receive an additional $300,000 in annual revenue. If we reduced absences by half, we could add more than one million dollars to our budget, allowing us to preserve or enhance services, programs and staff.

Of course, when children are sick they certainly should not be in school. However, there are times, when students are out of school for other reasons. I am asking parents to help us achieve maximum funding by scheduling medical appointments after lunch, and taking vacations during school holidays. Although you may think of these as ‘excused absences,' the rules of attendance have changed from years ago. There are no longer ‘excused absences' as far as funding from the state is concerned. The district can only collect state funding for students who are physically at school on a given day. The only exception would be a pre-arranged Off Campus Independent Study (0CIS) Contract for more than five days.

So please help your children understand that when it comes to school, “it's not okay to be away.” Attendance leads to school success, and can also help us increase funds to do our vital work with your children. Thank you for your continued support of public education.

Cordially,

SMMUSD