California's transitional kindergarten and kindergarten students posted a 23% chronic absenteeism rate in the 2024-25 school year, well above the 19% rate for all students statewide, and 2025-26 was the first school year in which TK became widely available to every eligible family. The gap has persisted for years, and it matters because kindergarteners' ability to read and do basic math is predictive of academic achievement by third grade and beyond.
The figures come from an EdSource analysis by reporter Betty Márquez Rosales, republished by LAist, which found that a chronically absent student misses about 3.5 weeks in a typical 180-day school year. Chronic absenteeism is defined as missing 10% or more of instructional days for any reason, a standard also codified in California Education Code Section 60901. Statewide, the all-student rate has fallen sharply from a pandemic-era high of 30% in 2021-22, when nearly 2 million TK-12 students were chronically absent; the TK-K rate fell by 17 percentage points, from 40% to 23%, compared with an 11-point decline statewide to 19%, though it remains higher.
Roseville's Turnaround From Nearly 26% to 10.5%
One district's experience shows the problem is fixable. Roseville City School District, which enrolls about 12,000 students, watched its overall chronic absence rate drop from nearly 26% in 2021-22 to 10.5% in 2024-25 after sending attendance letters to families, calling parents whose children were frequently absent, and building graphics that show families how missed days add up over a school year, per the same LAist account.
Even so, TK and kindergarten students in Roseville were hit hardest during the worst of the crisis: their chronic absence rate ran 11 percentage points higher than the rest of the district at its peak in 2022-23. The district responded by focusing its attendance communications specifically on TK and kindergarten families the previous year, sometimes sending an individualized message telling a family their child had already missed five days just two months into the school year — while emphasizing, in the district's outreach, that Roseville is ready to help rather than simply flagging a problem.
Why the Earliest Grades Struggle Most
SchoolStatus, which works with 123 California school districts on chronic absenteeism, found that re-engagement is most effective when schools reach out after just three to five absences rather than waiting until a student crosses the chronic threshold. Kara Stern, cited in the LAist report, said a child's first year of school is usually a year of sickness, and the youngest students tend to get sick more often during that first year in the classroom. Stern added that reaching out after three to five absences is more effective than waiting for a student to become chronically absent.
Jessica Hull, also quoted in the same report, said missing school means missing building blocks that impact students for the rest of their lives. Hull said families may not view daily attendance in the earliest grades as a strict requirement, and often fail to track how many days a student has actually missed. Chronically absent TK and kindergarten students are also about twice as likely to transfer school districts, according to the report, while students who never attended preschool or other early learning programs face an especially high risk of spotty attendance.
Statewide, TK-K chronic absenteeism fell to 23% in 2024-25 from 40% in 2021-22. Early education researchers note that irregular attendance in these earliest years can lead to lower academic achievement later, and district officials say building consistent routines in TK and kindergarten helps set the stage for stronger attendance as students grow older. California is expected to release its 2025-26 chronic absenteeism data in October, the first full year in which Transitional Kindergarten has been available to every eligible 4-year-old statewide.
A Statewide Pattern Beyond One District
The stubbornly high early-grade numbers echo a broader trend documented by the Public Policy Institute of California, which reported that TK-K students recorded a 23% chronic absenteeism rate in 2024-25 — still the second highest of any grade band after high school, even after falling from a pandemic peak of 40% in 2021-22. The institute also found that chronically absent students statewide missed an average of 33 school days in 2024-25, nearly double the state's 18-day threshold for chronic absenteeism, representing roughly 1.1 million students and still well above the pre-pandemic rate of 12% in 2018-19.
The stakes extend to school budgets as well. California is one of only six states that funds K-12 schools based on Average Daily Attendance rather than total enrollment, and a Legislative Analyst's Office report previously covered by Hoodline found that switching to enrollment-based funding under SB 98 would cost the state an estimated $5.6 billion annually. That arrangement means every chronically absent kindergartner represents lost revenue for a district already managing tighter margins.
