California Graduation Rates Hit a 10-Year High While Chronic Absence Lingers at 18%

California just posted two education numbers that pull in opposite directions. The state’s four-year graduation rate climbed to 87.9% in the 2025-26 school year, the highest mark in a decade. At the same time, 18.3% of transitional kindergarten through 12th-grade students were chronically absent, meaning nearly one in five missed a large chunk of the school year. Both figures come from the latest California School Dashboard, the state’s official accountability system, released alongside the year’s Smarter Balanced test scores.

The split tells a familiar but uncomfortable story. Schools are getting more students across the graduation stage than at any point in ten years, yet attendance has still not fully recovered from the disruption of the pandemic. For parents, students, and educators, the numbers raise a question that matters more than any single statistic: what does the gap between these two trends reveal about what is actually happening in classrooms?

The California Dashboard at a Glance

Here are the headline figures from the 2025-26 California School Dashboard release, reported by EdSource and republished by LA School Report:

• Graduation rate: 87.9% — the highest in ten years
• Chronic absenteeism: 18.3% among TK-12 students, down 1.1 percentage points from the prior year
• Suspension rate: 2.8%, down 0.1 percentage points (it stood at 3.6% in 2022-23)
• College readiness: nearly 55% of graduates met minimum requirements for the California State University or University of California systems, up 0.9 percentage points
• Enrollment: down 496,975 students — an 8% drop — since the 2016-17 school year

Every one of these figures is worth understanding in context, because California measures them against its own definitions. Chronic absenteeism, for instance, does not mean a student was suspended or expelled. It means the student missed at least 18 instructional days during the year — roughly 10% of a typical 180-day school calendar — for any reason, excused or not. A child who misses two days a month, which can feel routine to a busy family, crosses the threshold by year’s end. That is why the 18.3% figure is so striking: it does not capture a small fringe of students. It captures nearly one in five.

A Decade in Reverse: How California Got Here

2016-17: The baseline before the slide

Ten years ago, California’s schools looked very different. Enrollment was near its peak — the state would go on to lose nearly half a million students over the following decade, an 8% decline that reshaped district budgets and staffing. Graduation rates were climbing steadily but had not yet reached today’s level. Chronic absenteeism, though rarely discussed as a crisis, was already elevated: by 2017-18 it stood at 11.1%, or about one in nine students. The number would matter later, because it became the yardstick against which the pandemic’s damage was measured.

2021-22: The pandemic spike

When in-person schooling fractured during the pandemic, attendance collapsed. Chronic absenteeism in California surged to 30% — almost one in three students missing 10% or more of the school year. The spike was not about truancy in the traditional sense. Families kept children home for illness, quarantines, caregiving responsibilities, and remote-learning fatigue. Whatever the cause, the effect was the same: millions of missed days, and a lost sense of school as a daily habit. Suspensions also sat at their recent high-water mark, 3.6% in 2022-23, reflecting the turbulence of the return to campus.

2023-25: The slow climb back

Recovery has been real but uneven. Year by year, chronic absenteeism has ticked downward from the 30% peak to this year’s 18.3% — a drop of nearly twelve percentage points in four years. Suspensions have fallen too, to 2.8%. Some districts moved much faster than the state average. In Downey Unified, chronic absenteeism among TK-8 students dropped from 19.2% to 18.4%, and among TK-12 students from 20.4% to 19.9%, according to superintendent Roger Brossmer. His diagnosis was blunt: “If they weren’t progressing, the number one thing they had in common was they weren’t coming to school.”

2025-26: The record, with an asterisk

This year’s dashboard brought the graduation rate to 87.9%, its highest point in a decade — genuine progress, celebrated by state officials. “At a time when California continues to focus on accelerating learning and closing opportunity gaps, these results provide important evidence that our sustained investments are making a difference,” Governor Gavin Newsom said in a statement. But the asterisk matters: absenteeism, while far below the pandemic peak, remains well above the pre-pandemic 11.1%. The state also released the dashboard alongside Smarter Balanced assessment scores for the first time, giving educators a fuller picture that pairs test performance with attendance, suspension, and graduation data. UCLA education professor Tyrone Howard called that pairing “a smart thing to do,” noting that it gives schools “as holistic of a picture as we can from multiple standpoints.”

Two Numbers, Two Directions: Reading the Gap Honestly

The central puzzle of this year’s data is the divergence. Graduation rates at a decade high; attendance still seven points above its pre-pandemic level. How can both be true at once?

Part of the answer is that the two metrics measure different cohorts over different windows. The graduation rate reflects a single senior class; chronic absenteeism is a schoolwide, all-grades measure. A 12th grader who crossed the stage in June could have been part of a cohort that largely showed up, even while younger students missed weeks of school.

Part of the answer is that graduation numbers can be shaped by forces that have nothing to do with learning. This year provided a vivid example. Two charter schools — Highlands Community Charter and California Innovative Career Academy — dragged down statewide averages after enrollment collapses and operational failures. Highlands, an adult-education charter, saw enrollment fall from 11,713 to 487 and posted a four-year graduation rate of just 6.6% before filing for bankruptcy; California Innovative Career Academy recorded an 8.3% graduation rate with enrollment falling from 1,729 to 800. Because of how statewide averages are computed, Highlands alone pushed down the reported graduation rate for Asian students by 2.8 percentage points and for white students by 4.7 percentage points. Without those outliers, the underlying picture for mainstream districts looks somewhat better than the topline suggests.

And part of the answer is the one critics raise most directly. Troy Flint, a spokesperson for the California School Boards Association, warned that a rising graduation rate does not automatically equal a rising standard of learning: “A certain percentage of students are being pushed through without gaining the knowledge and skills that signify they’ve achieved a truly meaningful high school education.” That concern is exactly why the state now publishes test scores alongside the dashboard — to let the public check whether diplomas and proficiency are moving together.

Researchers who study attendance offer a steadier read. Hedy Chang, executive director of Attendance Works, has long argued that chronic absence is the canary in the coal mine: it shows up in the data before test scores fall and before students drop out. The fact that California’s rate fell another 1.1 percentage points this year is meaningful progress — but 18.3% is still far from the pre-pandemic baseline, and Chang and others have cautioned that recovery plans work only when districts treat attendance as a daily-relationship problem, not a paperwork one. If you are following local attendance efforts elsewhere, the Kalamazoo district’s new attendance playbook offers a useful comparison: a five-step plan built around early outreach rather than after-the-fact discipline.

There is one more strand in this year’s data worth attention: equity. Suspension rates overall fell to 2.8%, but foster youths were suspended at a rate of 13% — nearly five times the statewide average. College-readiness numbers moved in the right direction, with almost 55% of graduates meeting CSU/UC admission requirements and solid growth in two honors recognitions: 17.1% of graduates earned the State Seal of Biliteracy and 33.8% earned the Golden State Seal Merit Diploma, gains of 0.8 and 1.5 percentage points respectively. Progress is real across the board. It is just not evenly shared.

Myth vs. Fact: What the Dashboard Numbers Really Mean

Myth: A record graduation rate means students are learning more than ever.
Fact: The 87.9% rate is the highest in a decade, but researchers caution that graduation counts and learning are different things. The new side-by-side release of test scores lets the public check whether the two are rising together.

Myth: Chronic absenteeism only counts unexcused truancy.
Fact: California’s measure counts all absences — excused and unexcused — against the 18-day threshold. A student with a string of doctor’s notes can still be chronically absent. For the rules that decide which absences count as excused in the first place, see this overview of whether school attendance is compulsory.

Myth: The 18.3% absence rate means 18.3% of students dropped out or were expelled.
Fact: Absenteeism and dropout are separate measures. A chronically absent student is enrolled and expected back; the figure captures missed days, not departures.

Myth: Districts have no proven way to bring absence rates down.
Fact: Several California districts have cut their rates with family-centered strategies — data tracking, direct outreach, and barrier-busting like transportation help. Downey Unified’s drop and the national work documented by Attendance Works show the playbook exists.

Frequently Asked Questions

What was California’s graduation rate in 2025-26?

California’s four-year graduation rate reached 87.9% for the class covered in the 2025-26 California School Dashboard, the highest level in ten years. State officials tied the result to sustained education investments, while researchers noted that outliers like two struggling charter schools slightly depressed the statewide figure.

What counts as chronic absenteeism in California?

A student is chronically absent if they miss at least 18 instructional days in a school year — about 10% of a standard 180-day calendar. Excused and unexcused absences both count toward the total. In 2025-26, 18.3% of TK-12 students met that threshold, down 1.1 percentage points from the year before but still well above the pre-pandemic 11.1%.

Is chronic absenteeism still above pre-pandemic levels?

Yes. The rate peaked at 30% in 2021-22 during the height of pandemic disruption and has fallen every year since, reaching 18.3% in 2025-26. That is major progress, but it remains roughly seven percentage points above the 11.1% recorded in 2017-18. To put the threshold in practical terms, a student who misses two days a month reaches chronic-absence territory by spring — which is why tracking attendance percentage across the year matters more than it seems.

Why were some charter schools mentioned in this year’s dashboard story?

Highlands Community Charter and California Innovative Career Academy — both adult-education charters with collapsed enrollments and single-digit graduation rates — distorted statewide averages. Highlands alone dragged down the reported graduation rate for Asian students by 2.8 percentage points and for white students by 4.7 percentage points before filing for bankruptcy.

Where can I read the original reporting on these figures?

The story was reported by EdSource journalists Mallika Seshadri and Vani Sanganeria and republished by LA School Report. The full article is available on EdSource, with the complete breakdown of dashboard indicators including suspension, college readiness, and enrollment data.

What Families Can Actually Do This Semester

The dashboard is a state-level instrument, but attendance is won or lost one school day at a time. A few habits consistently separate families whose children stay under the 18-day threshold from those who drift over it:

1. Count days, not excuses. Keep a running tally of absences on a calendar or in a notes app. Two days a month sounds harmless; it adds up to 18 by June. Families who track the number catch the drift early.
2. Treat the first absence as a signal, not a crisis. One sick day is normal. Two in a fortnight deserves a conversation about what is making school hard to reach — transport, sleep schedules, anxiety, or a schedule conflict.
3. Build the school connection early. Students with a relationship to at least one adult at school — a teacher, coach, or counselor — miss fewer days. Research on attendance consistently backs this up, and it costs nothing.
4. Plan medical and family appointments outside school hours when possible. Routine appointments are the most common source of excused absences that still push students over the chronic threshold.
5. Ask the school for its data. Most districts can show a family its own attendance dashboard on request. If the school’s number and your count disagree, the school’s is the one that matters for reporting.

None of this requires a policy change or a new program. The districts that have cut chronic absenteeism fastest — Downey included — did it largely with outreach, data, and relationships rather than new rules. The 87.9% graduation rate shows what is possible when students stay connected to school. The 18.3% absence rate shows how much room is left to get them there.

Parents and students who want to keep their own numbers straight can use the free attendance percentage calculator to see exactly where they stand against the 90% attendance line that keeps chronic-absence flags away.