Livermore Schools' Truancy Rate Well Below State Average

About 15 percent of Livermore public school students were reported as truant at least once during the past school year, according to information released by the state superintendent's office.

The district's rate is well below both the state and the county average.

Truancy is defined as any student who misses 30 minutes or more of class time without a valid excuse at least three times in one school year.

At the high schools, the rate ranges from 60 percent at Phoenix Continuation to 10 percent at Livermore High.

At the middle schools, the range is from a high of 15 percent at Christensen to a low of 6 percent at East Avenue.

At the elementary schools, the range is from 27 percent at Rancho Las Positas to 10 percent at Leo Croce.

Scott Vernoy, the district's director of student services, said LVJUSD's relatively low truancy rate is due to a coordinated effort between teachers, parents, district administrators and others to reduce absenteeism at all levels.

"The fewer hours a student attends classroom instruction consequently leads to low grades and test scores," said Vernoy."Focusing on attendance has allowed the Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District to recover valuable learning time and supports LVJUSD’s goals to improve graduation rate, close the achievement gap and ensure the success of each and every student."

The district is also involved in the Attention2Attendance program as well as intervention programs to help prevent truancy before it begins.

"This increase in parent communication was incredibly impactful, especially for at-risk students," added Vernoy. "By engaging parents earlier, parental involvement increased, promoting better attendance patterns, proactively preventing future absences and establishing good attendance for the rest of the year and instilling good habits for the future."

Below is a table from data gleaned from the state superintendent's website. You can view data on suspensions, expulsions and truancy for each individual school by data on suspensions, expulsions and truancy for each invididual school here.