Addressing Chronic Absence Among Latino Kindergartners in LAUSD: Insights from Latino Parents to Inform Solutions

In partnership with LAUSD, Families In Schools issued a new report highlighting families and schools as essential partners in combating chronic absenteeism.

This report, Addressing Chronic Absence Among Latino Kindergartners in LAUSD: Insights from Latino Parents to Inform Solutions, gathered insights from focus groups of 48 Latino parents and caregivers of LAUSD students to identify challenges families face in bringing their children to school every day. In addition to naming barriers to daily school attendance, families shared a deep commitment to their children’s education and an understanding that daily attendance is important.

The report highlights the importance of leveraging this commitment with additional parent-informed strategies, several of which are already underway as part of the district’s iAttend initiative. We applaud LAUSD for embracing this report, acknowledging that families are essential partners in mitigating chronic absence, and taking steps to address gaps based on the parent-informed recommendations issued by FIS. 

NOTE: Since the writing of this report, the Los Angeles community has been targeted by the Trump administration for mass deportations. The ICE raids have resulted in families being too afraid to send their children to school, which will undoubtedly impact our efforts to further decrease chronic absence for our youngest students. Both LAUSD and FIS acknowledge this challenge and are committed to identifying additional strategies to support our families and ensure their children continue learning and benefit from their right to a public education.